Cotuit Pitchers Cool Mariners' Heels; Smoak Belts Homer

For Immediate Release

Kettleers Remain Tied for First Place in Western Division with Wareham

By Megan Kerr

COTUIT, MA — Cotuit remained undefeated at home last night as South Carolina's Justin Smoak belted a home run (2-3) and Young Harris sophomore righty Jay Brown tossed five shutout innings to pace the Kettleers to a 3-0 win over the visiting Harwich Mariners.

    Since the onset of the season, Cotuit has relied upon its league-leading offense to power it over its opponents, but this time the Kettleers showcased their pitching prowess. Leading the league in team ERA (1.67), Cotuit's staff kept Harwich on its toes and on its heels all game.

  Jay Brown (Young Harris, 2 BB, 4 K, 2 H) threw around 90 pitches over five plus strong innings for the Kettleers as he picked up his first victory of the season and led the way for Cotuit's second shutout of the season. Harwich was really never able to get anything going against Brown as other than the two straight singles in the second inning, the Whitecaps were unable to get more than one runner on the bases at the time. Cotuit, on the other hand, was able to get enough offence going against Harwich starter Johnny Dorn (Nebraska, 1 BB, 2 Ks, 6 H), who picked up his second loss of the season, to insure the victory for the Kettleers.

  Dorn pitched fairly well for six innings, but not well enough to completely contain the Ketleers attack. Cotuit struck first in the third inning with two outs as Brett Lilley (Notre Dame, 1 for 2) singled and then stole second, for his first stolen base of the season, to put himself in scoring position for Jeff Rea (Mississippi St, 1 for 4, 1 RBI). Rea then tripled to bring in Lilley for the game-deciding run and his sixth RBI of the season. Cotuit didn't stop there though, as they added another run in the fourth off of a sacrifice bunt by Sean Gaston (Notre Dame, 0 for 2, 1 RBI) and another run in the sixth off of a homerun by Justin Smoak (South Carolina, 2 for 3, 1 RBI). Three runs was more than enough run support for the Cotuit pitching staff as Cory Gearrin (Young Harris, 1 BB, 1 K, 0 H) pitched two and two-thirds shutout innings in relief for the Kettleers to pick up his first save of the season.

  Cotuit continues to be deadly at home as with the victory over Harwich they have now won all four of their home games, but the Kettleers now have two straight away games. The Kettleers start this stretch against Orleans tomorrow where they hope to continue to stay atop the Western Division with a victory.