For the third consecutive year and the fifth time in seven years, the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox will play for the Cape Cod Baseball League championship.
Y-D swept Chatham and improved to 4-0 in the playoffs with a 4-1 win at Veterans Field Tuesday night.
Amazement is allowed at this point, but surprise probably shouldn’t be. The Red Sox have done this before, winning the last two titles as the East’s No. 3 seed. And this year, they were actually better than their No. 2 seed would indicate. They started the year 0-5, then went 26-12-1. Had they won at that clip from the very beginning, they would have matched Falmouth for the best record in the league. Chatham’s victory over top-seeded Harwich in the semis made the path smoother for the Red Sox, but they would have been a formidable foe for the Mariners anyway.
Tuesday, the Red Sox built an early lead with two runs in the first and one in the third. They wasted little time in the opening frame, getting a leadoff single by J.J. Muno (UC Santa Barbara) to start the game and a single by Kevin Smith (Maryland) to score him. Deon Stafford (St. Joseph’s) added an RBI single later in the inning.
Corey Dempster (USC) doubled in the second and came around on a bunt by Muno for the 3-0 lead.
Starter William Montgomerie (Connecticut), who was tagged for five unearned runs in a game against Chatham last week, had error-less defense behind him this time and allowed one run on two hits. He struck out four. Both hits were singles.
Jake Palomaki (Boston College) had an RBI groundout for Chatham in the fifth, but that was the only offense the Anglers would get. Sean Barry (San Diego) – a playoff reinforcement – struck out three in 1.1 scoreless frames and Sam Delaplane (Eastern Michigan) went the final 1.2 innings for the save.
Chatham’s Lincoln Henzman (Louisville) took the loss after allowing three runs in six innings. The defeat brought an end to a wild week for Chatham, which fought its way into the playoffs and knocked off Harwich.
But the Red Sox – as they’ve been for everybody in the last few postseasons – were a little too much.
Falmouth 5, Bourne 4
Falmouth gave Bourne a taste of its own medicine with a late rally and evened its West finals series at one game apiece. The top-seeded Commodores rallied from a 4-3 deficit with two runs in the eighth. Cadyn Grenier (Oregon State) and Michael Gigliotti (Lipscomb) powered the comeback with RBI doubles. Stephen Villines (Kansas) then pitched a scoreless bottom half and Corbin Martin (Texas A&M) struck out two in the ninth, quieting a Bourne offense that had relied on late-inning heroics in both games of its semifinal sweep. Gigliotti – the Cape’s top prop prospect award winner – finished 2-for-3 and is now hitting a scorching .611 in the playoffs. Grenier drove in two runs, as did J.J. Matijevic (Arizona). Starter Jake Bird (UCLA) didn’t factor in the decision but was solid, allowing two runs in five innings.
What to Watch
Game three of the West finals is set for 6 p.m. tonight in Falmouth. Michael Adams – the ace of the staff for junior college powerhouse Harford and a Towson commitment – will make just his second appearance for Bourne. Interestingly enough, his only other outing came against Falmouth August 3, when he went four scoreless innings. Falmouth counters with Brendan King (Holy Cross), who’s 4-0 with a 2.91 ERA.