By Matt Schneidman
August 11, 2014

COTUIT — As Jeff Kinley’s seventh-inning pickoff sailed wide of first – allowing Falmouth to take a 4-2 lead and advance Kevin Newman to third – a tangible sense of worry filled Lowell Park.

Newman later scored and in a game that had been tied or separated by one for six innings, the Commodores finally had some breathing room.

Falmouth dominated on the hill once again, and after a Kyle Holder first-inning, two-run homer, scattered only two hits through the final eight innings. Six different Kettleers’ pitchers combined to allow 17 hits, as the Commodores’ offensive outburst gave the visitors a 10-2 win at Lowell Park on Monday evening, advancing them to the Cape League finals and ending Cotuit’s season.

Starter Jackson McClelland had trouble locating in the first, but he only allowed one run after an inning-ending double play prevented Cotuit from falling into a sizable early hole.

The Kettleers responded immediately, though, as Holder launched his first home run of the season into the trees in right-center to put the Kettleers ahead, 2-1.

The Commodores were able to retake the lead in the fifth after three singles off of McClelland and Trey Wingenter put them ahead, 3-2. Cotuit put runners in scoring position in both the fifth and sixth but was unable to convert.

Falmouth then made the Kettleers pay.

After Kinley’s throwing error and a Connor Hale RBI single, the Commodores had a three-run lead. There was still a faint sense of hope among the home faithful, but that didn’t last long.

Falmouth put up five more runs in the eighth off Will Stillman and Andrew Schwaab, blowing the game open, as many in the Lowell Park crowd filed out.

As Boomer White reached three feet over the left-field fence to rob Jordan Ebert of a home run in the ninth, it was clear that nothing was meant to go Cotuit’s way. Drew Jackson popped out to end the game, and the home dugout slowly filed out to shake hands for the last time.

A season that had more downs than ups ended in one of the worst ways possible, as the Commodores out-hit the hosts by 14 to bury their season.

It was a playoff run that had given many in the organization a belief that Cotuit could repeat after knocking off league-best Bourne, but the Commodores’ pitching was simply too dominant to handle.