story by Steve McCarthy
July 5, 2010
FALMOUTH - With their fifth straight win Monday
night, the Cotuit Kettleers leapfrogged the Falmouth
Commodores and the Hyannis Harbor Hawks in the Cape Cod
Baseball League's Western Division standings and now
trail division frontrunner Bourne by a single point.
Cotuit defeated
Falmouth for a second straight night, this time holding
on for a 5-4 decision at Guv Fuller Field.
“It's huge for
us, especially since we came off a pretty big losing
streak,” said Cotuit left fielder Michael Yastrzemski
(Vanderbilt). “It's tough to be on the other side of
that, but you've got to just snap out of it real quick
and it will be fine.”
The Kettleers
(9-10-1) and the fifth place Wareham Gatemen were the
only two Western Division teams to win on Monday. Bourne
has 20 points to Cotuit's 19. Falmouth (9-11) and
Hyannis remain tied with 18.
Cotuit will host
Eastern Division foe Harwich on Tuesday in the only
scheduled Cape League game featuring a Western Division
club.
The Kettleers built
a 5-1 lead Monday, which proved to be just enough of a
cushion as the Commodores mounted a late-inning charge.
Cotuit out-hit
Falmouth 8-7 and pulled away in a three-run sixth
inning. The Kettleers committed four errors, resulting
in three unearned runs.
Austin Wood (1-0,
St. Petersburg JC) went five and two-thirds innings in
his third start for Cotuit and finished with a
season-high seven strikeouts. He allowed two hits,
walked three, and was not responsible for the lone run
that crossed against him.
“I felt a little
more wild than I did the other night, but I was still
just working on keeping the ball down,” Wood said.
“It was nice once we got a few runs and settled down a
little bit.”
Brady Rodgers
(Arizona St.) finished the game in relief for Cotuit and
earned his first save of the summer. He allowed two
earned runs and was touched for five hits. He also
struck out five.
The Kettleers were
without league RBI and home run leader C.J. Cron (Utah),
who departed after Sunday's game to participate in the
Team USA Trials, but they found a way to win with
small-ball. Cotuit's speedy new-look lineup legged out
three bunt singles and stole six bases. Yastrzemski
swiped three bags in a game for the second time this
summer and leads the team with seven steals in 10
attempts.
“It's really
important to know that even though our RBI leader and
big power hitter is gone, that everyone else can just
step in,” Yastrzemski said. “Everyone in the league
is real good. It's not like we're depending on one
person.”
Newcomer Caleb
Bushyhead's (Oklahoma) bunt pushed Yastrzemski across
with Cotuit's first of two runs in the second inning.
Jordan Leyland's (UC Irvine) sac-fly plated the other.
Cotuit's first two
runs were charged to Falmouth starting pitcher Matthew
Stites (2-1, Jefferson County JC), who went four and
two-thirds innings and took his first loss of the
summer.
Nick Maronde
(Florida) spelled Stites for an inning, but it was a big
one for the Kettleers. Curt Casali's (Vanderbilt) RBI
single got things going, and Chad Wright (Kentucky)
scored from second after stealing third and inducing a
low throw from Falmouth catcher Andrew Susac (Oregon
St.) that ended up in left field. Casali advanced to
third on the play and scored on a passed ball.
Falmouth's Kyle
Bluestein (Jacksonville St.) lined a single to left
field in the fifth inning which got under the glove of
Yastrzemski and rolled to the fence, allowing Bluestein
to end up at third base standing. Bluestein scored on
Kyle Van Tungeln's (TCU) sac-fly.
The Commodores
managed just two hits through the first seven innings,
but adjusted to Rodgers in the eighth. Van Tungeln led
off with a double and scored on K.C. Serna's (Oregon)
single. Serna's hit also caused a two-base error and he
trotted in on a Kevin Medrano (Missouri St.) sac-fly.
Falmouth notched
two more hits in their final at-bat and Susac scored to
make it a one-run game, but Van Tungeln was left
stranded on first as Cotuit first baseman Leyland
squeezed a pop fly in foul territory for the final out.
Falmouth relievers
Scott Weismann (Clemson) and Matt Summers (UC Irvine)
held Cotuit's bats in check over the final three-plus
innings.
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