story by Steve McCarthy
August 3, 2010COTUIT - The Cotuit Kettleers led
by a run and trailed by as many as six. Either way, they
couldn't solve the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox, who swept a
doubleheader at Lowell Park Tuesday, 9-5 and 4-2.
The Eastern
Division regular season champions needed only three
pitchers to get through the 14 innings and everyone came
to hit. Pinch-hit home runs by Matt Jensen (Cal Poly)
and Ben McMahan (Florida) spoke for a blustery Game 1,
and a three-run sixth inning rally from a 2-1 deficit
gave Y-D the second victory.
“It definitely
gives us momentum to go into the playoffs,” McMahan
said.
The Red Sox (27-16)
lead Brewster by three points heading into the last day
of the regular season. The first round of the eight-team
playoffs starts Friday.
Cotuit has lost
five straight and will finish the season against the
Whitecaps on Wednesday. Tuesday's losses, combined with
an extra-innings win by Falmouth, dropped the Kettleers
from second place to third in the Western Division
standings. Two points separate second place Falmouth
from fourth place Wareham.
McMahan, a two year
Red Sox veteran, had four hits and four runs batted in
on the day to pace Y-D's 17 hit attack. He doubled twice
to go with his solo homer.
“Every time I get
a chance up here, I just do what I can,” McMahan said.
Gabriel Shaw
(Louisville) came one out from a complete game in the
early contest and Derek Benny (Fresno St.) went
four-plus innings in the second. D.J. Baxendale
(Arkansas) closed out both games.
In the first game,
the Red Sox tagged Cotuit starting pitcher Kyle McMillen
(Kent St.) for six runs, three earned, resulting in a
call to the bullpen after McMahan's leadoff home run in
the third inning.
Y-D needed just
three hits the rest of the way to score three runs as
Cotuit relievers Keenan Kolinsky (Vanderbilt) and Austin
Dicharry (Texas) each walked three batters and Dicharry
hit one with the bases loaded.
Jordan Ribera
(Fresno St.) had a two-run double in the second inning.
Cotuit's Chad
Wright (Kentucky) went 3-for-4 with an RBI and a pair of
runs scored, as the Kettleers out-hit Y-D 10-7 in the
loss.
In the second game,
Cotuit went up 2-1 on a pair of RBI singles by Joey
Hainsfurther (Baylor), a lead which held until the sixth
inning. The Kettleers worked three pitchers for a
maximum of three innings and Y-D solved David Colvin
(Pomona-Pitzer) in his second inning.
Matt Watson's
(Boston College) single to left induced a fielding error
by Cotuit left fielder James Foster (Wofford), allowing
McMahan and Dusty Robinson (Fresno St.) to score. Matt
Vinson (Arkansas) then plated Watson with a single up
the middle.
“We were just
stringing quality at-bats together,” Watson said.
“It was a team effort.”
Baxendale (2-3)
picked up the win in relief, going two and two-thirds
innings and allowing one hit.
Cotuit starting
pitcher Brady Rodgers (Arizona St.) struck out four in
his two innings of work.
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