The Harwich Mariners and Chatham Anglers are heading in very different directions. On Sunday night, they kept going at full speed. Harwich beat Chatham 5-0 at Veterans Field. It’s the eighth win in 10 games for Harwich, and the ninth loss in 10 games — and seventh in a row — for Chatham. Harwich is in third place at 16-14. Chatham is in last at 12-17-1.
In their strong stretch, the Mariners have won every which way — slugfest or pitchers’ duel. On Sunday, it was a little of both, as the Mariners got great pitching and a good offensive showing.
Harwich got seven strong innings from starter Andrew Leenhouts (Northeastern). He struck out three and allowed no runs on four hits. Will Locante (Tennessee) and Daniel Burawa (St. John’s) pitched one scoreless inning apiece to seal the deal.
Offensively, Taylor Dugas (Alabama), Brian Goodwin (North Carolina) and Steven Proscia (Virginia) had two hits each. The Mariners scored three of their runs in the top of the first inning and never looked back.
For me, the Mariners have been flying under the radar a bit. There lineup has been in flux since day one, but with the dust settling after Team USA trials, Harwich really only had to say goodbye to Mikie Mahtook. What’s left is a strong club that should be able to make a run. It’s no surprise that they’re doing it.
It is a surprise that Chatham is struggling so much. I really liked their offense at the beginning of the season, but they’ve cooled off a lot. The pitching staff ranks fourth in the league in ERA, though, so it’s not like things have completely fallen apart. The Anglers just haven’t been able to get going.
Both Chatham and Harwich have 14 games left in the regular season. We’ll see if they keep moving in different directions.
Elsewhere
After seeing its win streak get halted on Saturday night, Wareham lost 3-2 to Cotuit. The Gatemen are sitting in third place, now five points back of second-place Cotuit. The Kettleers got a solid start from Bobby Shore (Oklahoma), who allowed two runs in six innings. Matt Andriese (UC Riverside) and Ryan Duke (Oklahoma) combined to shut out Wareham the rest of the way. Brooks Pinckard (Baylor) hit a two-run homer in the first inning for Cotuit.
For the second time in three days, Brewster and Y-D got together in a battle of the league’s two best teams. The result was the same. Brewster, who won 9-2 on Friday, won 7-4 this time. All the offense came after the fifth inning, with Brewster scoring in four consecutive innings to take control. Drew Martinez (Memphis) and Danny Oh (California) drove in two runs apiece. Mike Dowd (Franklin Pierce) went 3-for-3 and Cohl Walla (Texas) had two hits. Taylor Featherston (TCU), playing in his third game of the summer, went 2-for-4. Matt Crouse (Ole Miss) picked up the win with two scoreless innings of relief. The Whitecaps are now 21-9, ahead of Y-D by six points.
Bourne stayed two points up on Cotuit with an 8-5 win over Hyannis. Scott Woodward (Coastal Carolina) had a huge day, going 4-for-4 with three runs scored from the leadoff spot. Travis Shaw (Kent State) had two hits and two RBI while Zack MacPhee (Arizona State) hit his first home run. The Braves used six pitchers, with Kevin Brady (Clemson) pitching two key innings and getting the win in his first appearance. R.J. Alvarez (Florida Atlantic), who’s been one of the best setup men in the league, pitched 1.2 scoreless innings and still hasn’t allowed an earned run. Tony Zych (Louisville) struck out three in a scoreless ninth to notch his league-best ninth save. Zych hasn’t allowed a run all summer.
Orleans edged Falmouth 5-4, sending the Commodores to their fourth loss in a row. Ryan Carpenter (Gonzaga) struck out eight and allowed two earned runs in six innings to get the win. Marcus Stroman (Duke) picked up his fifth save. The Orleans offense was led by Joe Loftus, who hit a home run and drove in two.
What to Watch
If Chatham is going to stop its streak, it’ll have to come against a first-place team with a standout pitcher. Bourne comes to town with Mike Morin (North Carolina) scheduled to start. Morin has a 1.96 ERA. Chatham counters with Marc Zecchino (Virginia Tech), who has a 2.50 ERA.
RELATED POSTS
Brewster and Chatham are definitely heading in opposite directions. I have seen both teams play a number of times this year and as the season moves along, I think it is becoming easier to see why this is so.
Using this past Saturday as an example, I can tell you that Brewster is on a mission. They are playing to win. In the bottom of the ninth inning of a 2-2 game with Harwich, the Mariners had a runner on third with one out. Whitecaps coach Tom Myers pulled his centerfielder into the infield and went with 5 infielders. Not an uncommon thing to do, but I’m betting that not too many coaches in the league would do this. He then proceeded to intentionally walk the next two Harwich batters to load the bases. OK, that one is an obvious move. But then, he decided to remove leftfielder Drew Martinez from the game and replace him with Cohl Walla, apparently feeling that Walla has the stronger throwing arm. Even though the moves did not pay dividends because reliever Colton Murray walked in the winning run, it was very obvious to everyone in attendance that Myers is keeping his foot on the pedal and has his Whitecaps playing to win.
On the other hand, Chatham is playing like they have circled August 4 on their calendars. I think the coaching deserves some criticism too. In their game with Y-D on Saturday afternoon, the Anglers were down, 3-2, when they came up to bat in the eighth inning. With a runner on first and two out, Chatham coach John Schiffner left righthanded batter Jacob Stallings in to bat against Y-D righty Anthony Desclafani, even though he had a couple of lefthanded options on the bench. Four pitches later, Stallings struckout and, for all intents and purposes, the game was over. Stallings finished the day 0 for 3 and is now batting .100. He can’t even see the Mendoza line from where he is. It’s admirable to be loyal to your players, but it’s also OK to make a move or two to try to win a game.
Chatham has now lost 11 of their last 12 games. Their only recent addition to the roster is USC’s Joe DePinto who is batting .133 with one RBI in 30 at-bats since arriving in Chatham. Other teams have been able to go out and bring in players who have contributed. I understand Chatham did not have a lot of room to tinker with their roster since they didn’t have anyone invited to the Team USA trials, but that leads to another potential problem. For two years in a row, Chatham has gotten off to a good start. They were 7-2-1 at one point this year. Last year, and now this year, they got off to strong starts while they had pretty much their full roster and other teams’ rosters were in flux. Then, when the other teams permanent players arrive and those teams make other moves, Chatham remains stagnant and soon they are being passed by, and are looking up at, those other teams in the standings.