Cotuit Can't Solve Commodores' Puzzle in First Home Loss

For Immediate Release

Delucia Takes Fairly Early Exit as Kettleers' Bats Can't Get Rolling

By Megan Kerr

COTUIT, MA — The Kettleers fell to Falmouth last night (June 29), 4-3, in the team's first home loss of the season as the Kettleers' bats couldn't seem to find enough magic to get it done.

    As competitive an affair as it was, Dan Delucia (Ohio State, 1 BB, 1 K, 6 H) only lasted four innings for the Kettleers as he was unable to contain the Commodores' attack as they jumped on him from the very first inning. Delucia now stands at 2-1.

    Andre Walker (Texas Christian, 2 for 4, 1 RBI) singled to give the Commodores their first lead of the game, which served to put Delucia on the defensive from the very beginning. Falmouth then added three more runs in the third inning of a two-run homer from Warren McFadden (Tulane, 2 for 3, 2 RBI) and a RBI double by Aja Barto (Tulane, 1 for 4, 1 RBI). The Commodores would need every single one of those four runs as Cotuit wasn't going to go down easy and they began to make their move in the fifth inning.

  Cory Riordan (Fordham, 1 BB, 3 K, 7 H) pitched very strong for the Commodores, but showed his first signs of weakness in the fifth inning as the Kettleers were able to get one run back off of a RBI single by Justin Smoak (South Carolina, 1 for 4, 1 RBI). Cotuit kept the pressure on Riordan in the next inning as Sean Gaston (Notre Dame, 2 for 4) and Kyle Russell (Texas, 4 for 4) both got on to put runners in scoring position with no outs as Cotuit continued to make its comeback. Tony Thomas ( Florida State , 0 for 3, 1 RBI) hit a sacrifice fly to score Gaston, and then a balk by Riordan moved Russell to third base, where he was able to score off of a sacrifice bunt by Matt Angle ( Ohio State , 0 for 3, 1 RBI). Down only by one, Cotuit appeared as if they had grabbed the momentum from the Commodores and were poised to take the lead to continue their home winning streak.

  Great relief pitching, especially from Tim Ladd (Georgia Tech, 1 K, 1 H) and Cory Gearrin (Young Harris, 0 BB, 5 K, 0 H), gave Cotuit the opportunity it needed to make a comeback against Falmouth. Unfortunately, Cotuit's comeback fell short as David Kopp (Clemson, 0 BB, 2 K, 1 H) -- who picked up his first save of the season -- was able to work out of a tough eighth inning by striking out Thomas with Russell, representing the tying run, on third. Kopp then had an easy one-two-three ninth inning, causing Cotuit to drop to seven and three on the season. The Kettleers tried to maintain their home winning streak, but unfortunately, their comeback fell one run short. Cotuit will look to get back on track tomorrow as they travel to play the Harwich Mariners.