Story By John S. Condakes
Sunday, July 13, 2008

HYANNIS — With a critical two points at stake, the Kettleers squared off against their cross-town rivals the Hyannis Mets Sunday night at McKeon Park and suffered their second loss there in as many tries by a score of 6-1. The loss put the Mets up 3-1 in the Barnstable Patriot Cup series so the Kettleers must win the next two meetings in order to have a shot at winning the trophy. The contest marked the managerial debut of Coach Scott Gurss who filled in for Coach Mike Roberts. After Roberts’ second ejection of the season, he was suspended for the game and left the team in the hands of Gurss

Prior to the game, reliever Mario Hollands of UC Santa Barbara was hit in the head during warmups by Hyannis third baseman Chris Dominguez of Louisville. “It still hurts actually, he got me pretty good,” said Hollands.

NC State’s Alex Sogard got the start for the Kettleers and allowed a solo shot to Dominguez who now leads the league in home runs due to the favorable dimensions of McKeon Park. Dominguez launched Sogard’s offering over the 379 foot marker in center that most likely would have been an out in Cotuit for an early 1-0 lead. Unfortunately, the Kettleers didn’t make much use of the small park and were only able to plate one run all night.

The Mets added three more runs off of Sogard in the third to go up 4-0 and Sogard’s night was finished after three innings. He finished with three innings pitched giving up five hits, four runs, a walk and a strikeout. Hollands pitched came on in the fourth inning to keep the game within reach for the Cotuit bats. “My head hurt pretty bad the whole time but I was good enough to throw,” he said. He finished with a line of three innings, one hit, no runs and a walk.

The Kettleers broke through in the runs column in the top of the eighth inning when third baseman Jeff Kobernus of Cal Berkeley led off with a double into the right-center field gap. Kobernus would come around to score Cotuit’s only run on an RBI single by first baseman Kevin Patterson of Auburn to cut the deficit to 4-1.

Brandon Cumpton pitched the final two innings and pitched a 1-2-3 eighth for the Kettleers but gave up two more runs in the ninth for the final score of 6-1. Cotuit’s local nine will have a night off on Monday night for the first time in three weeks and will be back in action on Tuesday as they host the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox at 5 p.m. at Lowell Park.