By Dylan Wolter
July 17th, 2015
The Cotuit Kettleers face their biggest three games of the season this weekend, starting a home and home series against the Falmouth Commodores on Friday Evening. The Kettleers dropped the first game to the Commodores, 5-2, but look for redemption tomorrow at Falmouth. They will then face Wareham on Sunday at Lowell Park.
With the Falmouth win over Cotuit on Friday, they are now implanted at third place in the division at 13-18, with Wareham a game behind them in fourth. The Kettleers are currently in last place with an 11-20 record but could inch closer to a playoff spot if they can manage a win or two against Falmouth or Wareham.
At this point in the season, the pressure is on for the Kettleers, having to fight their hardest to secure one of the final playoff spots and compete for a championship. Coach Brian Scott, who replaced Head Coach Mike Roberts after he was ejected from the game for arguing balls and strikes, doesn’t think it matters who they play as long as the Kettleers perform to the best of their ability.
“We just have to win and keep playing better,” mentioned Scott, “it doesn’t matter who we’re playing, whether it’s the team on our side or the other side. We just have to take care of what we can take care of.”
Coach Roberts has been preaching all year that it’s simply a matter of execution, not talent. This team has the talent to compete with all teams but a lack of polish and execution has led to losses. Kevin Ginkle (Nevada) agrees that the Kettleers can play with anyone.
“Tonight we showed that we can play up to anyone,” remarked the confident Ginkel, “Falmouth is definitely capable of being beaten, we just have to offensively come together a little bit better.”
Saturdays and Sundays showdowns against Falmouth and Wareham will be crucial games for Cotuit. If they could win one or both, they’d still be strongly in the hunt for the playoffs but losing would prove detrimental for the Kettleers playoff dreams.
Ginkel Shines- Kevin Ginkel, the rising Junior from Nevada, played in front of his family who flew in from California. It would be an understatement to say he put on a show in front of his loved ones. Ginkel simply dominated in four innings of work, striking out six and walking none.
The young fireballer hasn’t thrown for more than one inning all season. Recently Mike Roberts has expressed his confidence in Ginkel, claiming that he could be splitting time with Justin Dunn (Boston College) in the 9th inning. Coach Scott certainly thought this was Ginkel’s best outing of the season.
“He located his fastball and kept it down,” said a pleased Scott. Ginkel has an electric fastball, capable of reaching mid 90’s. In some outings he has been erratic with the fastball and is not yet consistent enough with his secondary pitches to rely on them. Ginkel left a couple pitches up in the zone but shook it off and delivered the next pitch.
Ginkel admitted he had a different mindset since he knew he was pitching for more than one inning. The mindset may have benefited Ginkel, claiming, “I wasn’t trying to blow it by hitters since I came in so early. I was just trying to hit my spots, I’m very very happy with the outing and how long it went.”
Ginkel kept the Kettleers in the ballgame and fans have to be excited with what they saw from him despite the loss. Pitching in front of his family made it all the more special for the former MLB draft pick. At a loss for words, Ginkel put pitching in front of his family bluntly, “it was awesome.”