Posted on by Will Geoghegan

Daily Fog: Steadily Rising

The Bourne Braves have quietly climbed to the top of the team pitching statistics. They have a league-best 2.08 ERA, eight runs better than the next best team.

I say they’ve done it quietly because there haven’t been a bunch of gems, and if I was picking dominant starters, I would look to Bourne.

But if last night is a sign, then maybe the best is yet to come.

Josh Conway (Coastal Carolina) got the start last night against Wareham and struck out five in seven shutout innings to lead Bourne to a 2-0 win. R.C. Orlan (North Carolina) and R.J. Alvarez (Florida Atlantic) finished it off with a scoreless inning each.

Conway is now 2-0 with a 0.53 ERA. His first start, he went four innings but he shined in his second start last week, allowing just an unearned run in six innings of work.

This time, he let nothing across, while striking out five and walking only one.

Conway doesn’t qualify for the ERA leaderboard yet, but if he did, he’d be near the top. And he’d have plenty of familiar company. Bourne’s Ryan Eades (LSU) leads the league with a 0.45 ERA, reliever Slade Smith (Auburn) is second at 1.00 and starter Chris Pickering (Rhode Island) is fourth at 1.27.

None of those Braves is near the top of the strikeout list. Alavarez checks in at 22nd to lead the Braves. I think that’s why I wouldn’t call them dominant.

But they’ve been great anyway, and they’re keeping Bourne afloat. The Braves have the lowest team batting average in the league. Thanks to the pitching, though, they’re 10-10-2 and tied for second in the West.

As was the case last night, sometimes they don’t need much offense. D.J. Hicks (Central Florida) and Jason Coats (TCU) each drove in runs, giving Bourne a 2-0 lead that proved to be enough.

Elsewhere

  • Hyannis moved to 16-7 with a 5-1 victory over a hot-hitting Brewster team. b (Clemson) shut the Whitecaps down through seven innings, allowing just a run on five hits and striking out six. Eric Ruth (Winthrop) and Nick Wittgren (Purdue) closed it out. With Brewster sending Tony Buccifero (Michigan State) to the mound against Firth, the game had the makings of a pitchers’ duel. But Hyannis touched Buccifero up for 12 hits in six innings. Eric Stamets (Evansville) and Joey Rickard (Arizona) each had three hits while Zach Vincej (Pepperdine) and Cal Towey (Baylor) had two apiece. Brewster’s defense didn’t help the cause — the Whitecaps made three errors and, as a result, Hyannis had only one RBI for the game.

  • Orleans took the lead with three in the fifth and watched its bullpen dominate en route to a 4-3 victory over first-place Harwich. A bases-loaded walk, an RBI single by Anthony Gomez (Vanderbilt) and a Jayce Boyd (Florida State) sac fly accounted for the fifth-inning rally. Starter Jason Wheeler (Loyola Marymount) then gave way to Andrew Chafin (Kent State), who allowed two hits in two scoreless frames. Kenny Long (Illinois State) followed with a scoreless inning before Trevor Gott (Kentucky) picked up his league-leading sixth save. Ronnie Shaeffer (UC Irvine) had two hits to lead the Orleans offense, while Ben Waldrip (Jacksonville) hit his league-best fifth home run.

    • What to Watch
    Game: It should be a good one in Orleans as the Firebirds host Hyannis at 7 p.m. The Firebirds have been a little up and down, but they still look like one of the top teams in the East. And Hyannis still looks like the top team in the league.
    Player: Kurt Heyer (Arizona) is scheduled to start for Orleans. He’s had one good outing and one bad outing, but nobody on the Cape had a better spring.

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    2 Replies to “Daily Fog: Steadily Rising”

    1. Really enjoyed your talk on “The Pulse” yesterday. I don’t miss a day of ” Right Field Fog”. Great job! A friend of mine from RI told me that you won the Rhode Island Press Assoc. Sports Columnist of the Year in May. Congratulations, you are a great writer . Keep up the goood work.

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