The biggest hitters of the Cape League’s first two weeks were batting third and fourth for Team USA Friday night in a win over Chinese Taipei.
Their Cape League teams still have some pop in their absence.
Without Andrew Vaughn, Wareham jumped back into first place with a 4-3 win over Hyannis, thanks to big contributions from Jeremy Ydens (UCLA), Austin Shenton (Florida International) and Bryant Packard (East Carolina).
In Chatham, where Spencer Torkelson’s departure left a big hole, Tristin English (Georgia Tech) and Drew Mendoza (Florida State) homered as the Anglers beat Y-D 5-2.
Vaughn, recently honored as the Golden Spikes Award winner for his season at California, was hitting .308 with five homers, but he was far from alone in Wareham’s lineup. Shenton still leads the league in batting average, while Ydens and Packard have heated up lately.
Friday, Packard went 2-for-3, pushing his hitting streak to four and his season average to .314. Ydens went 2-for-3 with his first home run and three RBI. He’s now batting .333. Shenton wen 1-for-3 with a run scored and has hit safely in five straight games.
Wareham did most of its scoring early then held off the Harbor Hawks, who had been red-hot coming in. Hyannis had won six in a row to take over first place. The Gatemen – who own a 2-1 edge in the season series – are back on top of the division by a point thanks to the win.
As for Chatham, the Anglers had lost three in a row, a streak that began in the last game for Torkelson, who was hitting .389 with five home runs.
English and Mendoza snapped the Anglers out of their funk in a flash, with home runs a batter apart in the fourth inning. The blast was the third of the year for English, who has been one of the league’s best hitters so far this season. He’s slashing .415/.468/.707 and has delivered three consecutive two-hit games.
Mendoza, who hit .313 with seven homers for Florida State this season, hasn’t gotten off to a good Cape start like English. He was 1-for-12 on the year entering Friday’s game. If the home run gets him going, he’ll be a big presence for the Anglers.
The Anglers also got a good showing on the mound from Jack Conlon (Texas A&M), who allowed just an unearned run in five innings for the win.
Bourne 14, Brewster 0
Brewster is really struggling, and Bourne took full advantage with a 14-hit, 14-run explosion. Four different players had two hits for the Braves: Tyler Fitzgerald (Louisville), Spencer Brickhouse (East Carolina), Cooper Johnson (Ole Miss) and Alika Williams (Arizona State). Fitzgerald, Jared Triolo (Houston) and Spencer Horwitz (Radford) each had two RBI. The offense was way more than enough for two Bourne pitchers. Justin Lasko (UMass) allowed four hits and struck out five in six shutout innings and Kyle Martin (Fordham) was dominant in a three-inning save, striking out seven of the 10 batters he faced and not allowing a hit. Bourne improved to 8-7-1. Brewster, which lost its seventh straight, is 3-11-1.
Harwich 10, Orleans 8
Harwich has generally won with pitching, but prevailed over Orleans in an extra-inning slugfest Friday to return to the top spot in the East standings. The Mariners trailed 8-2 but tied the game with two runs in the seventh and four in the eighth. Danny Casals (Maine) hit a two-run homer to break the tie in the 11th and Joe La Sorsa (St. John’s) pitched a scoreless bottom half to preserve the win. Casals finished 2-for-5 with three RBI, while Aaron Schunk (Georgia), Nate Eikhoff (Virginia) and Gabe Rivera (Miami) each had three hits. Andre Lipcius (Tennessee) homered and drove in two. Orleans lost despite three home runs and 14 hits. Spencer Steer (Oregon), Pat DeMarco (Vanderbilt) and Nicholas Osborne (Tennessee Tech) went deep for the Firebirds and J.J. Bleday (Vanderbilt) had three hits.
Falmouth 7, Cotuit 6
Falmouth walked off on Cotuit for its fifth consecutive win. Cameron Cannon (Arizona) was the hero with an RBI single to score Kyle Stowers (Stanford) in the bottom of the 10th inning. The game-winner capped a furious comeback for the Commodores, who trailed 6-1 in the sixth inning. A two-run double by Edouard Julien (Auburn) keyed a five-run rally that tied the game. Brent Killam (Georgetown) pitched 2.2 scoreless innings of relief to keep it deadlocked and Logan Rinehart (California Baptist) tossed 1.2 hitless frames for the win.
What to Watch
One of the top starters in the league so far, John Baker (Ball State), makes his fourth start as Cotuit visits Y-D.