Cotuit Heads to Bourne for a Shot at the CCBL Title

By Sean Walsh & Megan Kerr, Web Editorial Staff
August 7, 2005

COTUIT, MA — The Kettleers took a slow, methodical, confident approach this afternoon in defeating the Hyannis Mets, 2-1, and their patience and hard work paid off in full: a trip to the 2005 Western Divisional Playoffs versus Bourne beginning Tuesday at Coady Field at 3:00 p.m.

Roberto Lopez (USC, 2 for 3 batting, 2 RBI) came up big with the bat and Jeff Manship (Notre Dame, 7 Ks, 0 BB) flew through the Hyannis lineup as Cotuit clinched a playoff spot with their two to one victory over the Mets.  Cotuit was in charge of their own destiny coming into the game as they knew that a victory would guarantee them a playoff spot, and though they knew that even with a loss they could possibly back themselves into the playoffs, they didn’t put their fate in the hands of others as they made sure to get the necessary win.  It was a hard fought game with neither team willing to give the other much, but Cotuit was just a bit better as Lopez came up with two timely hits to defeat the Mets and send the Kettleers into the playoffs.

Before the all important game, their were a few other things that occurred before the game started as it could have been the last home game of the season for the Kettleers had they not won.  In light of that fact, Cotuit did two things before the first pitch was thrown; first they gave the host families gifts to show their appreciation and then they named the team’s MVP for the season.  The MVP is voted on by teammates and coaches, and the 2005 Cotuit regular season MVP was declared to be Sean Gaston (Notre Dame).  Sean has had a great year, making the all star team and leading his team with a .304 batting average on the season.  It was a well deserved honor and no one had any qualms with the choice as Gaston had been an obvious leader throughout the season.

We congratulate Sean on the great season that he has had, and we would also like to congratulate two other members of the Kettleers family who participated in the Man Mass Challenge bike race.  John, who owns the Gourmet Brunch on Main St Hyannis, and Glen biked five hundred miles in support of Cancer research and the Jimmy Fund in what was the twenty-sixth year of the race.  Over twenty-one million dollars was raised for cancer research for a great cause and Cotuit is proud that two of its members were involved in so great a cause.

The main event though, wasn’t the bike race of the MVP race, but was instead the actual game against Hyannis as everyone knew that the Kettleer’s playoff hopes lay in the balance.  That was why when Hyannis took an early lead, fans started to get uneasy as they knew the importance of the game.  Hyannis staked a one to nothing lead in the fourth inning off of a RBI by Kyle Norrid (Memphis, 1 for 4 batting, 1 RBI), but that was all the Jeff Manship gave up the entire game.

Manship pitched superbly in order to pick up his third win of the season, and it couldn’t have come at a better time as Cotuit was unable to get much going against Tim Dunphy (Brandeis, 2 Ks, 0 BB) of the Mets.  Dunphy only threw fifty pitches in six innings and was in complete control most of the time, but Cotuit was able to get what they needed off of him.  Both runs came off of hits by Roberto Lopez as doubled to bring in Julio Borbon (Tennessee) in the fourth and singled to bring in Todd Davison (Delaware, 1 for 3 batting) in the sixth.  Lopez hit in the fourth spot because of the injury to Bryan Harris (Cal State Fullerton), who has what appears to be a bone bruise from being hit yesterday, and it worked out extremely well for the Kettleers as Lopez brought his RBI total up to eight with today’s game.

Leading by a run, Chris Toneguzzi (Purdue, 2 Ks, 0 BB) was called to do what he does best, which is save the game, and that is exactly what he did.  After Toneguzzi induced a groundout for the final out of the inning, everyone began to celebrate as they knew that with the win Cotuit had finally made it to the playoffs.