Cotuit Edges Chatam A's, 1-0, for Second Straight Win

For Immediate Release

Kettleers Squarely On Top of the Western Division in First Place

By Megan Kerr

COTUIT, MA — Cotuit won its second home game in a row as the Kettleers defeated the Chatham A's, 1-0, to improve to 12-6 on the season. Christian Staehely (Princeton, 4 BB, 4 K, 1H) upped his record on the mound to 2-1 on the season as he pitched a very solid six innings to pick up the victory. Staehely didn't allow a hit until the sixth inning as he completely shut down the struggling Chatham lineup. Just as Staehely was able to keep the A's off balance, so was Chatham starter Nathan Moreau (Georgia, 2 BB, 4 K, 5H) able to contain the Cotuit attack until the bottom of the sixth inning.

      Moreau pitched very well for the A's, but due to a lack of run support, he picked up his first loss of the season. With one out in the sixth inning, Justin Smoak (South Carolina, 2 for 4) doubled for the second time of the game. Then, with the count at one and two, Kellen Kulbacki (James Madison, 1 for 3, 1 RBI) doubled to bring in Smoak for the game winning RBI. Moreau continued to pitch all eight innings and though the sixth was the only inning in which he was pressured, that turned out to be enough as his offence was unable to get anything going against Cotuit pitching.

      Four Cotuit pitchers combined to throw a shutout at the A's as they never allowed Chatham to get any momentum going. Chatham only has one player who is hitting above three hundred and this game did nothing to help the team batting average. In the eighth, it appeared that the A's were going to tie the game up as they had runners at first and second with only one out. Dave Duncan (Georgia Tech, 0 BB, 2 K, 2H) then came on and struck out the next two batters to end that threat. Then, in the ninth, with a player on third with one out, Cory Gearrin (Young Harris, 0 BB, 2K, 0H) came on and again put out a Chatham attack by striking out the next two batters to secure the victory for the Kettleers.

      Gearrin picked up his second save of the season as he completely fooled the Chatham hitters to ensure that the bottom of the ninth was unnecessary. Cotuit now travels to play the second place Wareham Gateman before again returning home to play Bourne two times in a row.