Daily Fog: The Junior Circuit

Falmouth has more junior-college players than any team in the league, and all of them are pitchers who figure to be key parts of the staff.

They certainly made an impact Monday night.

Tommy Collier (San Jacinto) and Patrick Cooper (Des Moines Area CC) combined for eight shutout innings to lead Falmouth to a 4-0 victory over Orleans in a battle of winless teams.

I said before the season that it would be interesting to see how the juco guys would do against much tougher competition. So far, so good for Falmouth’s trio. Mitch Mormann, also of Des Moines CC, tossed four perfect innings in the Commodores’ opener.

But until Monday, the Commodores hadn’t found the win column. They tied the game Mormann pitched, then lost on Saturday and Sunday.

Collier, Cooper and another reliever, Georgia Tech’s Mark Pope , finally turned things around.

Collier, a freshman who got drafted in the 29th round out of high school, had a fantastic season at San Jacinto, a juco baseball powerhouse. He finished with 13 wins, a 2.67 ERA and 128 strikeouts in 91 innings. Among pitchers who are currently on the Cape, that strikeout total ranks at the top.

Monday night, Collier picked up where he left off, allowing just two hits in six shutout innings. He struck out nine and didn’t walk anybody.

In relief, Cooper also shined. He got himself into some early trouble but responded nicely to preserve the shutout. Cooper had great numbers at Des Moines this year — 106 Ks in 72.1 IP — and was a 34th-round pick of the Diamondbacks.

The performance by Collier and Cooper set the stage, and Pope made sure to finish it off. The Georgia Tech freshman had a high ERA this spring but also struck out a batter an inning. He worked a 1-2-3 ninth to pick up his first save.

Falmouth’s offense was led by Todd Cunningham (Jacksonville State), who hit a home run, and Scott Lawson (Florida), who went 3-for-5 and stole four bases. He’s the second player already to steal four bases in a game this season. Chris Bisson did it for Cotuit.

Elsewhere

• Falmouth’s win dropped Orleans to 0-4, which is a surprising start considering how solid the offense looks on paper right now. But the Firebirds have a team ERA close to five, by far the worst in the league.
• If I told you one of the two pitchers who went for Brewster Monday night had a dominant performance, you’d probably pick Kyle Blair (San Diego), right? Blair was good — three shutout innings — but the real star was Mark Gormley. Brown’s top starter this spring, Gormley came on in relief for Brewster in the fourth inning last night and turned in one of the top pitching performance of the night. He ended up going six scoreless innings and striking out six. The offense didn’t provide much support but he didn’t need it anyway. The Whitecaps scored a pair of runs on errors. Gormley has now made two appearances and has struck out 10 in nine innings.
• There was a great story playing out for Bourne last night, and I hope someone will tell it in more detail at some point. According to the Bourne broadcast crew, Braves pitcher Stephen Porlier (Oklahoma) was making perhaps the last start of his career before he enlists in the Marines. And what a start it was. Porlier, who decided to join the Marines in part because injuries were derailing his baseball career, allowed one run in six innings, struck out four and didn’t walk anybody. He didn’t get a decision as Bourne and Cotuit ended in a 2-2 tie, but he still went out in style. If this is indeed the end of the line for Porlier’s baseball career, best of luck to him.
• For Cotuit, newcomers Devin Harris (East Carolina) and Tony Plagman (Georgia Tech) each had RBI. Chris Bisson (Kentucky) stole two more bases to bring his league-leading total to eight.
• Yesterday, there was one 3-0 team. Today, there’s a different one. Chatham, who’s played one fewer game than most of the rest of the teams, moved to 3-0 by knocking off previously unbeaten Y-D 3-2. Former Y-D player Whit Merrifield (South Carolina), who’s now with Chatham, scored what proved to be the winning run when he scampered home from third when Nick Schwaner (New Orleans) got caught in a rundown between first and second. Kaleb Fleck (Pitt-Johnston) went five shutout innings for Chatham and Russell Brewer (Vanderbilt) picked up his first save. Brewer led the league in saves last year while pitching for Hyannis.
• Wareham topped Hyannis 4-2 thanks to a late rally. Ryan Pineda (Cal State Northridge) scored the go-ahead run in the eighth on a throwing error, and Eric Pfisterer (Duke) made it a 4-2 game with an RBI single. Reliever Jack Armstrong (Vanderbilt) made his first appearance for Wareham and picked up the win in relief with 3.2 shutout innings.

What to Watch For Tonight
Looks like a good pitching match-up in Chatham as Cotuit’s Chad Bell (Walter State CC) goes against Chatham’s Jake Thompson (Long Beach State). Bell was a 14th-round pick in last week’s draft. He’ll be making his first Cape appearance.

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