The Wareham Gatemen have trailed at some point in their last three playoff games.
It hasn’t mattered.
After using a pair of late rallies to beat Bourne in the West finals, Wareham opened the 2012 Cape Cod Baseball League championship on Wednesday with more heroics. Trailing 4-2, the Gatemen scored single runs in each of the final three innings on their way to a 5-4 victory over Y-D and a 1-0 series lead. Ty Ross (LSU) hit a solo home run in the top of the ninth to cap the comeback.
Wareham has now won nine games in a row going back to the regular season, and the flair for the dramatic has been there all along. In three of the four straight wins to end the regular season, Wareham scored the decisive runs in the seventh inning or later. Now, it’s happened three more times in the playoffs.
Watching the game online yesterday, it was hard to envision a late comeback the way things were going early on. Y-D starter Andrew Thurman (UC Irvine), who had struggled a bit in a playoff start against Chatham, looked like the Andrew Thurman who turned in a complete game shutout, one of the great performances of the summer, on July 22. This time, Thurman dominated in the early going. He struck out the side three times and ended up with 12 Ks in seven innings. In the meantime, Y-D took a 4-1 lead.
But the Gatemen hung around. Starter Kendall Graveman (Mississippi State) gave up three runs in the second and one in the third but then settled in and gave his team a chance. He ended up going seven innings, and he didn’t allow a run after the third.
And his team seized the chance. The Gatemen managed to touch up Thurman for single runs in the third and fourth innings on an RBI single by Cole Sturgeon (Louisville) and a solo home run by Daniel Palka (Georgia Tech), making it 4-2. Then in the seventh, Mott Hyde (Georgia Tech) walked, stole second and scored on a base hit by Ross, cutting the lead to one. In the eighth, with Thurman out of the game, the Gatemen kept coming. Palka grounded out with the bases loaded to score the tying run.
In the ninth, Ross led off and took a 1-1 pitch from Joey DeNato (Indiana) out of the park for the 5-4 lead.
Wareham’s bullpen, which has been a strength throughout the winning streak, then flexed its muscle again. Colby Suggs (Arkansas) worked around a walk to strike out the side in the bottom of the ninth.
Just like that, the Gatemen — in a game that didn’t seem like theirs — had found a way.
Game 2
It should be a great one in Wareham tonight. The Gatemen will be going for the championship, but they’ll have to get through Cape League ERA champ Aaron Blair (Marshall), who gets the ball for the Red Sox. Barrett Astin (Arkansas), who had an ERA over six in the regular season, gets the nod for the Gatemen.
Game time is 7 p.m.
Results from the Cape Cod Dice Baseball League:
Chatham’s Ricky Hargrove (Houston) had a no-hitter going for 7.2 innings before Hyannis’s NickCrawford (UAB) broke it up with a single, but Derrick Lutz (GW) finished off the one-hitter and preserved a 2-0 win for the Anglers. Todd Frazier (Rutgers) drove in both runs on a home run and finished with three hits and a stolen base. Chatham remains undefeated while Hyannis remains winless.
Elsewhere
On a good night for pitchers, Jarrett Arakawa (Hawai’i) of Orleans also had a no-hitter for 6.2 innings before Harwich’s Josh Donaldson (Auburn) singled, but Justin Earls (Georgia) and Marcus Stroman (Duke) completed the 4-0 win for the Firebirds. Matt Wieters (Georgia Tech) remained hot, hitting a double and a home run and driving in three of the four runs.
At Red Wilson Field, Caleb Ramsey (Houston) led off the game with a walk, stole second, and scored on a single by Zak Blair (Mercyhurst), and it proved to be the difference in a 1-0 Red Sox victory over Brewster. Scott Green (Kentucky), Tim Gustafson (Georgia Tech), Nick Cassavecchia (Baylor), and Tyler Burgoon (Michigan) combined on the shutout, while Anthony Ranaudo (LSU) was the hard-luck loser for the Whitecaps.
Erik Nielsen (UNLV) hit a three-run homer in the first inning and it proved to be all the offense Cotuit would need in a 6-2 win over Wareham. Jake Buchanan (NC State) gave up one run over six innings for the victory. The Gatemen got both of their runs on home runs by Tyler Horan (Virginia Tech), giving him four on the young season.
Falmouth scored seven runs in the first two innings off of Bourne’s Grayson Garvin (Vanderbilt) and held on for a 9-6 victory. Daniel Carte (Winthrop) and Drew Dosch (Youngstown State) homered for the Commodores, while Marc Krauss (Ohio) and Mason Robbins (Southern Miss) homered for the Braves. John Simms (Rice) pitched two shutout innings for the save.
What to Watch
I jumped the gun yesterday when I described the Aaron Crow (Falmouth) vs. Daniel McCutchen (YD) matchup. That game actually takes place today.
Chatham is a powerhouse in dice baseball!
Yup, and they will be at least until 2015, when they’ll lose half their starting lineup (Frazier, Coghlan, Longoria, Frost). Orleans is always good and YD has been coming on strong in the last couple years. Brewster and Harwich, however, are always weak.
In the West, Falmouth is just about always the best team, though they’ve had competition from Wareham and lately Bourne, and this year Cotuit is much improved. Hyannis is always bad … even Sean Manaea lost his first start.
It’s interesting that Falmouth is good in dice baseball but not so good in real life. That’s because every year they seem to have just one or two really outstanding performers. Think about it: Carte, Gillaspie, Cesario, Pollock, Cunningham, this year Dosch. And on the pitching side, Aardsma, Buck, Crow …