By: Sean Bailey, Writing Intern, Providence College
July 7, 2013
COTUIT – A baseball season is like a pendulum. It swings back and forth. And as with the pendulum, every season has its ups and downs, and every team experiences them. And right now the pendulum is swinging the wrong way for the Cotuit Kettleers. The team lost another one, their fourth out of their last five games. This time it was at the hands of their cross-town rivals, the Hyannis Harbor Hawks 5-2.
““I need to be a little meaner, and tougher, and demand more from them in a positive manner,” said Manager Mike Roberts following the game. “Summer baseball is very difficult. We have to play together and right now. We are not playing well together. The coaching staff has to find the right mix.”
The offense again struggled for the Kettleers, as they only mustered five hits off the Harbor Hawks. The team only had four runners reach scoring position, and they left three of these on base.
“We are very inconsistent,” said Roberts. “We are young in a lot of positions, but we’ve got to grow up and tonight was a night that showed we are not very mature on the field.”
For Hyannis, they wasted little time looking to avenge their 2-1 loss to Cotuit the night before. In the first inning, Skyler Ewing (Rice) smacked a two out double to left that hopped to the wall. Then Austin Slater (Stanford) brought him home with a single that found a hole between third and short. Rhett Wiseman (Vanderbilt) nearly caught Ewing at the plate, but Ewing avoided the tag with a hook slide at the plate.
Tim Kiene gave it a ride in the second to tie the game. Photo by Joe Cavanaugh
Cotuit received one of their five hits, and one of their two runs on one swing in the second inning. Tim Kiene (Maryland) took a 2-0 fastball letter high and gave it a ride to right field for a home run that tied the game.
“I went up trying to make contact. I got it in the air, and it went out,” said Kiene about his home run.
Neither team could break the tie in the third inning either, as they both nabbed runs. Hyannis scored theirs after a batter was hit, and two six pitch walks were issued to load the bases with no outs. Slater then hit a fly ball to shallow left center, which Steven Duggar (Clemson) ran down, however his throw took a wild hop over Nolan Clark’s (Concordia) glove and allowed the runner to score. Adam Ravenelle (Vanderbilt) did well to escape further damage, forcing two fly outs to center.
Cotuit grabbed their final run after Wiseman was hit by a pitch, and advanced to second after a high ground ball left only a play at first. Then Mike Ford (Princeton) ripped a shot towards shortstop, which, deflected off his glove and rolled to center, just far enough to score the speedy Wiseman and tie the game.
The game was stalemated as such until the Harbor Hawks broke the game open in the sixth with two runs. The rally started with a line drive single into center, then a double to the gap in left center perched Hawks on second and third with one out. Jay Baum (Clemson) cleared the bases with a single, and gave the Hawks a lead they would not relinquish.
The Kettleers nearly rallied in the seventh, when Kiene and Yale Rosen (Washington State) drew two out walks. However, Kevin Bradley (Clemson) struck out looking at a breaking ball to dismiss the last threat from Cotuit.
“We took too many pitches. In the last couple of innings we took a couple called third strikes,” said Roberts, “I was telling them I would rather them strike out swinging often than taking a lot of these pitches.”
The Kettleers will look to swing the pendulum and their bats back to winning ways at Lowell Park Monday at 5 p.m. against the Harwich Mariners in a rain make-up game.