By Courtney Swift
Kettleers Media Intern
July 5, 2012

COTUIT – After winning three of their last four, Cotuit looked to climb back to .500 Thursday against Hyannis. The Harbor Hawks, however, had other ideas, and the Kettleers lost 14-3 in blowout fashion. Cotuit played well through three innings bouncing back from multiple deficits, but the Harbor Hawks put the game away with grand slam in the fourth, and a four run seventh.

Cotuit starter Kyle Finnegan (Texas State) exited the game after hitting the first two batters of the fourth. He threw just 3 innings giving up four runs on four hits with two strikeouts and two walks.

Solo HR by Adam Nelubowich in the third gave Kettleers a temporary lead. (Photo by Joe Cavanaugh)

Ryan Connolly (Coastal Carolina), who has seen a lot of innings on the mound this summer for Cotuit, came in to relieve Finnegan. He got one out before walking Hyannis’ nine hitter Dominic Jose (Stanford) and loading the bases. Connolly was up 0-2 in the count, but didn’t get three straight close calls, which coach Mike Roberts disagreed with. “It’s hard for me to believe that all of those were balls,” he said. “I thought that made him bring the baseball up a little bit.” The walk brought up Harbor Hawks lead off hitter, Brandon Trinkwon (UC Santa Barbara).

Trinkwon was already 2-2 on the night and didn’t stop in the fourth. He hit a grand slam bomb over the right center field fence putting Hyannis back on top 6-3. “We’re just trying to battle,” Trinkwon said. “We’re trying to get some wins in there, so by the end of the season we’re still in it and maybe put a streak together, get a playoff run going and see what happens.”

Cotuit has been without two key players in Tim Kiene (Maryland) and recently Tony Kemp (Vanderbilt) due to injuries. The Kettleers can now add Raph Rhymes (LSU) to that list after he fouled a pitch off his foot and left the game in the top of the fourth inning. “When you start shifting positions around a little bit, and our defense has been marginal anyway, and that hurts your defense when you do that,” Roberts said. He guesses Rhymes has a bone contusion. Kemp has a sore elbow and is resting his legs after being hit by three pitches in two days. Kiene could be back in as little as ten days.

The Kettleers battled in the early innings coming back from two different Hyannis leads. Cotuit tied the score at one a piece in the top of the second after Hyannis starter Jimmy Hodgskin (Troy) walked in Jacob May (Coastal Carolina). They came back from a 2-1 lead in the top of the third to tie the score again after Adam Nelubowich (Washington State) hit a solo shot over the right field fence. The Kettleers even had a 3-2 lead heading into the bottom of the fourth.

Hyannis added to their three run lead in the fifth after Connolly overthrew third base to plate another Harbor Hawks run. Connolly struck out the next three batters to end the top of the fifth, but Hyannis was on a roll. The Harbor Hawks added to their lead scoring one more run in the sixth, four in the the seventh and two in the eighth.

Cotuit falls to 8-10 on the season as Hyannis climbs to 5-13. The Kettleers are home at Lowell Park Friday night at 5 p.m. against the Y-D Red Sox. Cotuit hasn’t faced Y-D yet this season, but looks to turn things around and put Thursday’s game against Hyannis behind them. For more postgame interviews, visit Official Kettleers on You Tube.