It’s an annual Right Field Fog tradition to use a “Fireworks” headline around the Fourth of July. The league often cooperates, with home runs flying or runs scoring.
Not this year.
Unless you place dominant pitching in the fireworks category.
Three teams logged shutout wins on the eve of Independence Day. Cotuit’s Zane Collins (Wright State) tossed a rare nine-inning, complete game in a 2-0 win over Wareham. Five pitchers teamed up for Orleans’ 3-0 shutout of Brewster. And four pitchers did the job for Chatham in a 4-0 win over Y-D.
Collins’ performance was the Cape League’s first nine-inning complete game since Hyannis’ Devin Smeltzer no-hit Harwich in 2015. There were no nine-inning complete games last summer and just a seven-inning complete game from Tyler Baum so far this summer.
Collins hadn’t gone deeper than 4.1 innings this summer and didn’t have a complete game in the spring with Wright State. But it all came together Monday, as Collins threw 117 pitches and went the distance. He struck out eight and scattered six hits, all singles. Collins now has a 0.96 ERA.
A key error and a passed ball gave Cotuit all the offense it needed to turn Collins’ gem into a win.
Orleans’ shutout was its ninth consecutive win. Daniel Lynch (Virginia) tossed five innings of one-hit baseball for the win, striking out three. Taylor Sugg (North Carolina), Jake Wong (Grand Canyon), J.T. Hintzen (Florida Southern) and Josh Hiatt (North Carolina) closed the deal, with Hiatt picking up his fifth save and maintaining his 0.00 ERA. Two RBI by Niko Decolati (Loyola Marymount) provided the offense.
A night after Chatham announced John Schiffner’s upcoming retirement, the Anglers delivered a blast from his past as a North Carolina starter dominated, like Andrew Miller, Matt Harvey and Zac Gallen before. Austin Bergner, who pitched mostly in relief for the Heels as a freshman, struck out six and allowed three hits over six scoreless innings. And he was dealing.
Nasty stuff from Austin Bergner @DiamondHeels tonight. Much improved command/off speed feel. Sitting 94-95, touching 96 for @ChathamAnglers
— Frankie Piliere (@FPiliereD1) July 3, 2017
Adam Wolf (Louisville), Josiah Gray (LeMoyne) and Jack DeGroat (Liberty) finished off the shutout. Nick Patten (Delaware) had two RBI to lead the Chatham offense.
Bourne 6, Falmouth 4
The Braves snapped Falmouth’s six-game winning streak and moved into a tie for first place with the Commodores. Chris Holba (East Carolina), Ray Gaither (Dallas Baptist), Chad Luensmann (Nebraska) and Ryan Feltner (Ohio State) combined to hold the Commodores red-hot offense in check, at relatively speaking. Feltner faced the league’s hottest hitter Alec Bohm (Wichita State) with a runner on base in the ninth and struck him out. Bourne got its six RBI from six different players. Scott Schreiber (Nebraska) had two hits to lead the charge.
Harwich 5, Hyannis 4
Harwich saved its shutout innings for the latter part of its matchup with Hyannis, as Teddy Rodliff (Stony Brook) ended a back-and-forth with 3.1 scoreless innings. He struck out two and allowed two hits. Jake Agnos (East Carolina) allowed one earned run in five innings for the win. Andrew Moritz (UNC Greensboro) had two hits and two RBI to lead the offense.
What to Watch
Holiday home-and-home sets get underway with Fourth of July games in Cotuit, Yarmouth, Harwich, Bourne and Orleans.