story by Steve McCarthy
August 12, 2010COTUIT - The Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox
bashed their way into the Cape Cod Baseball League
Finals with 20 extra base hits in their first four
playoff games. But with 13 shutout innings in the books,
they resorted to the Cotuit Kettleers' mantra of small
ball and manufactured the monumental first run of a 2-1
series-tying win Thursday over the Kettleers in Game 2
at Lowell Park.
The Red Sox earned
home field advantage for the best-of-three series with
the league's top regular season record, so “Red”
Wilson Field in South Yarmouth will be the site of a
decisive Game 3 on Friday at 3 p.m. Y-D will look to win
its fourth title in 10 years while Cotuit has not won it
all since 1999. The Kettleers have won a league record
14 championships.
Cotuit ace Austin
Wood (St. Petersburg JC) and Y-D's John Leonard (Boston
College) wouldn't allow more than the occasional
unproductive base hit Thursday, but Wood paid for both
of his walks while Leonard did not issue a single free
pass.
Ben McMahan
(Florida) took the first base on balls in the fifth
inning and moved into scoring position on a Danny Muno
(Fresno St.) sacrifice bunt before Matt Jensen's
(Cal-Poly) sharp grounder got normally sure-fielding
Cotuit shortstop Deven Marrero (Arizona St.) to lose the
handle on one. First baseman Jordan Leyland (UC-Irvine)
then booted one while charging in on a squeeze bunt
which pushed McMahan across.
“I don't care how
we score runs,” Y-D field manager Scott Pickler said.
“We put the ball in play and that's what baseball's
all about. They made an error and we capitalized.”
Jensen walked with
one out in the seventh to chase Wood from the game and
stole second to set up Tyler Hanover's (Boston College)
RBI single into right-center field.
Only the second run
off Wood was earned, and the hard-throwing righty struck
out four in a three hit outing. A.J. Achter (Michigan
St.) finished the game for the Kettleers.
“There's nothing
better than being able to take (Wood) down and now be
able to win it back at home,” Y-D shortstop Joe Panik
(St. Johns) said.
Meanwhile, Leonard
kept the shutout intact through six innings to lower his
playoff earned run average to 0.64 in 14 innings. He won
both of his starts.
“That's kind of
been my demeanor my whole life, being calm in big
situations, and I think I did that today,” Leonard
said. “I just tried to fill up the zone, throw
strikes, and let my teammates do the work behind me. We
played a great team game today.”
Cotuit's James
McCann (Arkansas) homered off Anthony Desclafani
(Florida) in the eighth inning, his second in three
games, and the Kettleers left the tying run stranded on
second in the ninth against Red Sox closer D.J.
Baxendale (Arkansas).
Y-D managed just
four hits to Cotuit's six. Three came from the middle of
their order in Hanover, Panik, and Jordan Ribera (Fresno
St.). Nobody had more than one hit for Cotuit.
“We're a
confident bunch, not only in ourselves but in each
other,” Panik said. “We knew it was only a matter of
time. We only needed that first run to get us going and
we got the win today. Now we have the confidence and
hopefully we'll take it into tomorrow.”
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