Ian Bedell (Missouri) and Trent Palmer (Jacksonville) both owned 0.00 ERAs coming into Sunday’s game for the Wareham Gatemen.
Against a team that had just scored 11 runs off their teammates, Bedell and Palmer somehow kept those perfect marks intact.
Bedell pitched five innings of one-hit, shutout ball, and Palmer followed with four scoreless as Wareham edged Cotuit 1-0 at Spillane Field. The win salvaged a split of a two-game set with the Kettleers and kept Wareham in first place in the West.
A standout reliever for Missouri in the spring, Bedell logged a 1.56 ERA. He has transitioned seamlessly into a role as a starter with the Gatemen, going 4.2 shutout innings in his first start before a five-inning gem in his second. He was even a little better Sunday, with a single in the third inning his only blemish. He struck out four, didn’t walk a batter and faced just one over the minimum.
Palmer carried the torch from there. He hadn’t allowed a run in two shorter outings previously. This time, he gave up a pair of singles and nothing else, while striking out three in four innings of work.
Cotuit’s pitching was almost as good. Jackson Wolf (West Virginia) matched Bedell with five scoreless innings. Matthew Mervis (Duke) was solid in relief, but Wareham pushed the game’s lone run across in the seventh. Jacob Teter (Florida Southern) singled to lead off the inning and later came around on a sacrifice fly by Benjamin Sems (Kansas).
Wareham is now 9-6-1, while Cotuit drops to 7-7-2.
Orleans 7, Harwich 2
Orleans is the latest East team to get hot, and the Firebirds’ third straight win has them atop the division with the best record in the league. Four pitchers combined to allow just two hits as the league’s top staff kept the good times rolling. Jared Shuster (Wake Forest) struck out six and surrendered two runs on two hits in five innings of work. Both runs scored on a home run by Cory Acton (Florida) in the second inning. Shuster wouldn’t allow another hit, and his relief corps followed suit. Isaac Esqueda (USC), Nick Garcia (Chapman) and Carter Lohman (Louisville) combined on four hitless innings of relief. Raymond Gil (Miami) and Zach Kokoska (Kansas State) each homered to lead the Orleans offense. Max Troiani (Bentley) – who was featured in a great Cape Cod Times piece last week – logged his seventh multi-hit game of the summer.
Y-D 5, Brewster 2
Y-D rebounded from Saturday’s loss to split a weekend set with the Whitecaps. Andrew Eyster (South Carolina) and R.J. Yeager (Mercer) had two RBI each for the Red Sox, while Austin Wells (Arizona) went 3-for-4. The Red Sox worked backwards in the pitching department, with starter Brandon Dufault (Northeastern) going 1.1 innings, Chase Smith (Pittsburgh) coming next with 2.2 innings and Bodhi Vander Kooi (Arizona State) logging an unheard of five-inning save, quite possibly the longest save in Cape League history.
Hyannis 4, Bourne 2
Ryan Cusick (Wake Forest) was coming off an eight-strikeout, five shutout inning performance for Bourne, but Hyannis touched him up for three runs in the second and got some strong pitching of its own en route to a win. Hunter Goodman (Memphis) broke the ice in the big inning with a two-run single, and Bryce Teodosio (Clemson) added an RBI single. Starting pitcher Billy Corcoran (Pittsburgh) took a shutout into the fifth inning that was broken up by a Henry Davis (Louisville) home run, but Corcoran finished out the inning with the lead still intact. The bullpen held it, with Ben Abram (Oklahoma) and Nolan Crisp (Florida) finishing off the win.
Chatham vs Falmouth, PPD
What to Watch
The second game of the Barnstable Patriot Cup rivalry is set for today at Lowell Park. Cotuit won the series opener 11-0.