Kettleers Fall Short in Late-Inning Rally vs. Whitecaps on the Road

By Megan Kerr
June 23, 2006

BREWSTER, MA — Cotuit bats were quieted in a 3-2 loss to Brewster last night on the road as the Kettleers fell to 5-2 on the season. Christian Staehely ( Princeton , 1 BB, 2 K, 6 H) picked up his first loss of the season as he allowed the Whitecaps to score three runs. In the first inning, Staehely was hit on his foot on a hard grounder back to the mound by Matt Cusick (USC, 0 for 4), but though the sound from the ball striking him seemed to the fans to guarantee that Staehely would be to injured to continue, he toughed it out and pitched seven strong innings for the Kettleers. The Brewsters got to Staehely early as they scored on a single by Tavo Hall (San Francisco, 2 for 3, 1 RBI) in the second inning, a homerun from Jason Corder (Cal-Berkley, 1 for 3, 1 RBI), which was the first of the year for Brewster, in the fourth inning, and a sac-fly by David Adams (Virginia, 1 for 4, 1 RBI) in the fifth inning.

While Brewster found ways to score off of Staehely throughout the game, Cotuit bats were oddly silenced by starting pitcher Shaun Seibert (Arkansas, 2 BB, 3 K, 5 H), who picked up his first win of the season. Seibert threw six strong innings for the Whitecaps, but was helped by some lapses in judgment on the part of Cotuit base runners. It seemed that whenever Cotuit had an opportunity to press the attack, either the hitter was unable to come through or an error was made by the base runner. This is illustrated by the fact that during the game two players were picked off of first base and one player was hit by the ball when running to second for the last out of the inning. Nothing seemed to be going right for the Kettleers and it wasn’t until the ninth inning that they were able to put any serious pressure on Brewster.

Cotuit entered the ninth inning down by three runs and hoping to spark a comeback against Whitecap reliever Jeff Stallings (NC State, 1 BB, 3 K, 3 H). Tony Thomas ( Florida State , 0 for 2) started the inning off right by getting on base for the Kettleers as he was hit by the pitcher for the second time in the game. With one out, Mat Angle ( Ohio State , 1 for 2) walked to put men on first and second for Cotuit pinch hitter Sean Gaston (Notre Dame, 1 for 1, 1 RBI). With the count at three and one, Gaston singled to bring in Cotuit’s first run of the game and give their fans some life. Jeff Rea ( Mississippi St , 2 for 5, 1 RBI) strode to the plate with two outs after pinch hitter Wilson Tucker ( Belmont , 0 for 1) struck out. Rea was able to keep the inning going with a single to bring the Kettleers within one of the Whitecaps and put men on first and second with two outs. Barry Enright (Pepperdine) then entered the game for Brewster looking to get one last out to give the Whitecaps their third win of the season, which is exactly what he did with a strikeout of Kellen Kulbacki (James Madison, 0 for 5) to pick up his first save.

The Kettleers three game win streak was ended at Brewster because of their inability to get their bats going until the ninth inning. Cotuit looks to regain their hitting prowess as they again play on the road tomorrow against Yarmouth-Dennis before returning home for a game against Bourne on Sunday.