Havens Goes 3-3; Kulbacki Belts Home Run and Collects 3-RBI in Win
By Megan Kerr/Asst. Web Editor
July 23, 2006
HYANNIS, MA — Cotuit bats continued to dismantle opposing pitching last night as the Kettleers downed the Hyannis Mets, 6-4, on the road to go to 21-9-1 on the season, still atop first place in the Western Division pennant race.
The Kettleers continued their current streak of scoring first as Cotuit jumped on Matt Daly (Hawaii, 5BB, 3K, 8H) in the second inning to take their first lead of the game. Reese Havens (South Carolina, 3 for 3) singled to led off the inning, which Mat Angle (Ohio St, 1 for 3) followed with another single to put players at first and second for Kyle Russell (Texas, 0 for 3). Russell laid down a great sacrifice bunt to move the players over and then Havens raised home on a wild pitch by Daly. Tony Thomas (Florida St, 0 for 3, 1 RBI) then laid down a squeeze bunt that allowed Angle to score, giving Cotuit a two-run lead that appeared to be secure due to the great pitching by Michael Cisco (South Carolina, 0BB, 4K, 4H).
Cisco pitched brilliantly to pick up his third victory of the season as he only allowed three hits over the first eight innings that he pitched. His offence continued to back him up as in the fifth inning, Cotuit added four runs, highlighted by a three-run homerun by Kellen Kulbacki (James Madison, 1 for 5, 3 RBI) as Kulbacki’s bats appears to be heating up with his third homerun of the season. For the Mets, their bats weren’t quite as successful as Cotuit’s as Hyannis wasn’t able to get anything going against Cisco until the fifth inning when James Darnell (South Carolina, 2 for 4, 1 RBI) doubled to break up the perfect game Cisco had been throwing at the Mets. Darnell eventually came around to score off of an RBI by Brian Juhl (Stanford, 0 for 4, 1 RBI), putting the score at six to one in favor of Cotuit.
Hyannis was able to add another run in the eighth inning, but it appeared that Cisco was going to be able to throw a complete game as he entered the ninth inning having only thrown eighty-four pitches. Unfortunately, Cisco was unable to close out the game as he allowed the first two Hyannis batters to reach base, which forced Coach Roberts to bring in Cory Gearrin (1BB, 2K, 1H) to finish off the game. Cotuit then ran into some trouble as after Gearrin struck out the first batter he faced, the umpires appeared to fall asleep as they all missed what was an obvious foul ball by Matt Mangini (NC State, 0 for 4, 1 RBI), which allowed David Macias (Vanderbilt, 1 for 4) to move to third. Having been allowed to move over, Macias was then able to score off of a fly ball to left field. Hyannis added one more run off of Gearrin as Darnell doubled to cut Cotuit’s lead to two runs, but Gearrin was able to hang on as he struck out Juhl to secure the victory for Cotuit.
Cotuit now travels to play the Bourne Braves where they look to continue their winning play and continue their run as top team in the Western Division.