Y-D has been challenging Chatham for first place in the East for a while now, but the Anglers always seem to emerge in the top spot.
Consistently beating Y-D is a big reason why.
Thursday’s game at Veterans Field marked the end of the season series between the teams. Chatham won the game 4-3, finishing off an unbeaten run against the Red Sox. The Anglers won five of the games in the six-game series, with one tie mixed in. It’s been a very impressive show of strength, and it currently has the Anglers with a four-point cushion in the top perch.
Chatham won the first meeting in June by a 7-3 score. A week later, it was a 4-2 win. After that came a dominant performance on July 1, a 15-1 win that still stands as the team’s best offensive night of the season. Y-D fought to a 1-1 tie in the July 12 meeting, but even that featured a late rally by Chatham.
Then this week, the series concluded with games on back-to-back days. Chatham won 5-0 on Wednesday.
Y-D led 3-1 after four innings in Thursday’s game, but Chatham tied the game on a two-run homer by Alex Toral (Miami) in the sixth inning. In the eighth, Ben Ramirez (USC) walked, took second on a groundout, stole third and scampered home when the throw to third got away.
Y-D put runners on first and second in the ninth, but Hugh Fisher (Vanderbilt) struck out Austin Wells (Arizona), the only batter he faced, to finish off the victory.
Jeremy Wu-Yelland (Hawaii) earned the win with 4.2 scoreless innings of relief.
The win pushed Chatham’s league-best record to 22-12-2. It’s worth wondering where Y-D would be with better results against Chatham; after all, the Red Sox are 20-11-1 against everybody else.
But not the Anglers.
Falmouth 6, Orleans 1
Falmouth rolled on, winning its eighth in a row. It’s the longest win streak in the league this season. The Commodores took a lead in the middle innings and didn’t allow Orleans to score until the final frame. Baron Radcliff (Georgia Tech) hit his fifth home run, while Blake Dunn (Western Michigan) and Tim Tawa (Stanford) got in on the act, each hitting their first. Justin Wrobleski (Clemson) went five shutout innings with three strikeouts. Bradley Littleton (Lewis) and Sean Mullen (UCLA) kept the shutout going, with Mullen striking out four of the seven batters he faced. Logan Hoffman (Northwwestern State) surrendered a run in the ninth but nothing else. Falmouth now has a four-point edge on Wareham for first place in the West.
Bourne 4, Hyannis 2; Bourne 5, Hyannis 4
If Hyannis was going to make a miracle push to the playoffs, it was going to have to include a sweep here. Instead, Bourne got the sweep and moved within one win of clinching a playoff spot and eliminating the Harbor Hawks. The Braves rallied from a 2-1 deficit in the first game. Jimmy Glowenke (Dallas Baptist) hit a solo home run in the fourth to tie the game, then had an RBI single in the fifth to un-tie it. Glowenke finished 3-for-3 with three RBI. Harriston Rutkowski (Rutgers) allowed two runs in five innings for the win. Jared Poland (Louisville) and Kieran Shaw (Harvard) closed it out. For Hyannis in the first game, Konner Ash (Missouri) struck out four and took over the league lead in Ks with 40. The second game was tied 4-4 in the eighth – the first extra-inning since it was a doubleheader – when Bourne walked off with the win. Glowenke was the hero again, as his sacrifice fly plated Brendan Ravoli (Virginia) with the game-winning run. As usual, Hunter Goodman (Memphis) was a bright spot for Hyannis, hitting his seventh home run and pushing his league-best RBI total to 35.
Harwich 9, Cotuit 1
Harwich raced to a 4-0 lead in the second inning and didn’t need even that much as three pitchers combined to shut down Cotuit. Niko Kavadas (Notre Dame) hit his league-best ninth home run, giving him more than the end-of-season league leaders in five of the past six seasons. The one exception was Griffin Conine, who had nine in 2017. Joey Wiemer Jr. (Cincinnati) added two hits and an RBI, while Daniel Cabrera (LSU) knocked in two runs. Connor McCullough (Kansas State) struck out three in five scoreless innings. Nick Zwack (Xavier) allowed one run in three innings of relief, and Devin Ortiz (Virginia) tossed a perfect ninth.
What to Watch
Falmouth and Orleans meet again in what should be a very good pitching matchup. Carmen Mlodzinski (South Carolina), who ranks third in the league in strikeouts, goes for Falmouth against Jake Eder (Vanderbilt), who has yet to allow a run since arriving from Omaha.