story by Steve McCarthy
July 15, 2010
BOURNE – Nick Tropeano (Stony Brook) is the hard-luck starter of the Cotuit Kettleers pitching staff. He has tossed eight innings in each of his last two starts and surrendered a combined three runs, but still has yet to come away with that elusive first win.
On Thursday, Tropeano (0-3) dueled with Bourne’s Grayson Garvin (Vanderbilt) and ended up on the short end of a 2-0 affair at Doran Park.
Tropeano retired the first nine batters he faced before the Braves loaded the bases in the fourth inning on a pair of singles and a walk, and Daniel Bowman’s (Coastal Carolina) two-run line drive into the gap in left made the scoring difference.
Bowman tripled off Tropeano in Coastal Carolina’s first of two NCAA Regional wins over Stony Brook. The Chanticleers’ lineup featured three Bourne Braves.
“I kind of knew the scouting report on (Tropeano) and tried to share it with some of the other guys,” Bowman said. “Against a great pitcher like that, you’ve got to see really what he has. You can’t just go off a scouting report. He pitched a great game.”
Thursday’s win gave Bourne (14-12) a four-point cushion at the top of the Cape Cod Baseball League’s Western Division standings ahead of Cotuit (11-13-2) and Falmouth, who are tied with 24 points.
Cotuit has lost consecutive games for the first time in July. Bourne played its first game since Monday due to a rain-out and a scheduled off day.
Tropeano surrendered five hits, all coming in the fourth and fifth innings, and struck out three. He walked three batters and threw 70 of his 112 pitches for strikes.
Bourne leadoff hitter Scott Woodward (Coastal Carolina) and Zack MacPhee (Arizona St.) notched back-to-back hits to set up Bowman, and Josh Elander (TCU) and Nick Ahmed (UConn) singled in the fifth.
“Playing with (Woodward) down at Coastal, that kid’s always on base,” Bowman said. “He just does a fantastic job at the top of the order, setting the table for everything else.”
Garvin (3-0) dealt seven perfect innings and struck out five. He was replaced after cresting the 100 pitch plateau. R.J. Alvarez (Florida Atlantic) appeared in the eighth and Tony Zych (Louisville) earned the save (7) after striking out the first two batters he faced in the ninth.
The Kettleers could not connect two of their four hits together and went down in order in six innings. Paul Hoilman (East Tennessee), Chad Wright (Kentucky), and Levi Hyams (Georgia) were all stranded in scoring position.
“It’s a little tough sometimes, because they’re definitely a running team,” Garvin said. “I definitely felt in control and trying to get the pop outs or lazy groundouts so those guys couldn’t advance.”
Cotuit will host Harwich on Friday at 5 p.m.