We begin with an interesting fact. In the last six years, only one Cape Cod Baseball League team has won more than three consecutive games to start a season. That was, not surprisingly, the 2007 Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox, who had four future first-round picks and won 31 games en route to the championship.
Other than that, three was it. Many teams pulled off that feat, but four in a row was an impossible task.
This year, three in a row proved impossible.
Orleans and Cotuit both came into Saturday’s slate with 2-0 records but both took their first losses of the season. Previously winless Brewster beat Orleans 2-1 on an odd walk-off, while Bourne shut down Cotuit for a 5-1 victory.
Orleans has had a flair for the dramatic so far, winning in the eighth inning on opening night and walking off with a win on Friday. It was more of the same Saturday, but Brewster came out on the positive side. With one out and the bases loaded in the ninth inning of a 1-1 game, Derek Campbell (Cal) hit a ground ball to shortstop. Orleans tried to start a 6-4-3 double play but the throw to first wasn’t in time, Campbell was safe and Brewster had itself a victory on the old walk-off fielder’s choice.
Before the ninth-inning fireworks, the game was a pitcher’s duel all night. Brady Kirkpatrick (Maryland) allowed one unearned on four hits in five innings for the Whitecaps while Jarrett Arakawa (Hawaii) surrendered a run on six hits in five innings for Orleans. The Brewster bullpen proved to be a little stronger, with Jake McCasland (New Mexico) and Niko Spezial (Wake Forest) combining to allow just one hit in four shutout innings.
Over in Bourne, the Braves picked up their second win of the season with a steady performance against the Kettleers. Starter Jeff Thompson (Louisville), the New England Collegiate Baseball League’s top prospect a year ago, picked up where he left off, going five shutout innings and allowing two hits. Ryan Donahue (La Salle) struck out five in three scoreless innings of relief, while Hawtin Buchanan (Ole Miss) gave up a run in one inning, and that tally was all Cotuit got.
Cotuit had six pitchers take the mound, and the Braves delivered plenty of offense. North Carolina star Colin Moran went 2-for-4 with two RBI and John Murphy (Sacred Heart) scored two runs and also stole three bases. Mason Robbins (Southern Miss) had a triple and scored a run.
Elsewhere
What to Watch
Harwich and Orleans get together at 7 p.m. in Orleans for an early battle of 2-1 teams in the East. Corey Littrell, who had a strong sophomore campaign at Kentucky, is scheduled to go for the Mariners and he’ll be facing his Kentucky teammate Jerad Grundy, who also was very good this spring.