The Cape League’s Pointstreak scoreboard still has the third game of the championship series on the list and scheduled for Saturday night. It’s like a cruel tease while the withdrawal sets in . . .
The Yarmouth-Dennis pitching staff finished the playoffs with a 1.78 ERA and a batting average against of .188 – and those numbers include a game in which they gave up nine runs to Harwich. Take that game away, and the ERA stands at 1.00. Interestingly, while it may go down as one of the more dominant playoff pitching runs the league has ever seen, the 1.78 ERA isn’t even the best in the last four years. Harwich had a 1.71 ERA when it won the title in 2011. And going back to 2009, Bourne had a 1.38 playoff ERA when it won. Unsurprising moral of the story: if you have a playoff ERA under two, you’re probably going to win it all.
Kudos to the league on including Walker Buehler in the Playoff MVP award. While he only pitched in two of eight playoff games, his 0.00 ERA in 15.1 innings is remarkable and something that hasn’t been done in at least 15 years.
Splitting the award with Buehler was Y-D catcher Marcus Mastrobuoni, one of the most improbable CCBL Playoff MVPs in league history. Mastrobuoni plays for Division II Cal State Stanislaus, and he could very well be the first player from that school to play in the Cape League. He didn’t make his Cape League debut until July 24 and played in only five regular-season games. He wasn’t a full-time starter in the playoffs until Jesse Jenner broke a finger in the opening round. From that back story, Mastrobuoni hit .444 in the playoffs and drove in five of Y-D’s 10 runs in the championship series. He is the first player from a non-Division I school to win the Playoff MVP award since Kevin Hodge, a junior college player, won it in 1997 for Wareham.
The last three times Y-D won the title, its playoff MVP was a pitcher, and twice it was a closer. Joshua Faiola saved two playoff games on his way to the 2004 honor and David Robertson saved four playoff games (all the games Y-D won) to win top honors in 2006. I thought Phil Bickford might continue that trend with his three playoff saves, but it would have been hard to pick him over Mastrobuoni or Buehler.
Hunter Cole has played on two Cape Cod Baseball League championship clubs, but he’s never held the trophy. Cole played in 38 games for Cotuit last year and three in the playoffs before departing. Cotuit went on to the title. This year, after the former Georgia Bulldog was drafted in the 26th round, he came to Yarmouth and was one of the Red Sox’ best hitters before signing with the San Francisco Giants (he remained Y-D’s RBI leader through the end of the season). Cole was in Eugene, Ore., Friday night, playing for the Salem-Kaizer Volcanoes in the Northwest League, but he was watching.
Sidenote: anybody know a bookie who would take a bet on Salem-Kaizer winning the Northwest League title?
How about the summer Jordan Tarsovich had? He was a major key to success for the Red Sox, hitting .322 with three homers in the regular season. He hit .258 in the playoffs and broke open Friday’s game with a bases-loaded double.
Joey Armstrong was kind of on the other end of the spectrum during the regular season, finishing with a .157 batting average, but manager Scott Pickler stuck with him in the playoffs and Armstrong had two hits and an RBI in game one of the title series. Watching him in the championship, you wouldn’t have guessed he had struggled so much. He looked like a key cog.
Not a bad few months for Michael Donadio. Big East Freshman of the Year, Hamptons Collegiate Baseball League Batting Champion and MVP, and Cape Cod Baseball League champion.
Reinforcements like Donadio are always a key for successful Cape League teams, but it helps to have a core of mainstays too, and Y-D had that. Tarsovich, Andrew Stevenson, Rob Fonseca, A.J. Simcox, Josh Lester and Brennon Lund were in Friday’s starting lineup and were all with the team from the first week of the season on.
Stevenson deserves special mention in that department. He played in every single game for the Red Sox this summer, 44 in the regular season and eight in the playoffs. He also played in the All-Star Game, for good measure. He was zero for his first nine this season but ended up hitting .327.
That’s probably enough Y-D stuff and time to salute Falmouth, as well. The Commodores had a great summer, winning 26 games in the regular season for the second year in a row. It kind of felt like this year’s team was an extension of last year’s, with a lot of the same guys and the same feeling around the club, so this might mark the end of an era. The fact that it ended without a championship won’t change a lot of good memories for a lot of really good players.
Kevin Newman should have better memories than anyone. I imagine grounding into a series-ending double play on Friday won’t sit well, but it takes absolutely nothing away from his career. He’s a shoo-in for the Cape League Hall of Fame someday.
Thanks to everyone for reading this summer – and for bearing with me during wedding season. I’ll hopefully be doing some off-season stuff and come next June, we’ll be off and running again.
Finally, if you’ve ever wondered if players truly enjoy their time in the Cape League, you need only ask. Or, since it’s 2014, check Twitter. They had themselves a summer:
Had the best summer with some life long friends! Thank you @YD_RedSox for such a great experience! The Boys did it! #CCBLCHAMPS
Matt Eureste fouled off pitch after pitch. Six of them, all with two strikes, pop-ups and choppers, one that hit so hard off his foot, he had to take a minute to walk it off. He did whatever he could to stay alive.
Phil Bickford wouldn’t budge. He kept pumping strikes, his velocity maybe down a tick, but his competitive streak still running hot. He wouldn’t throw a ball and he wouldn’t give him a pitch to hit. He struck Eureste out swinging on the ninth pitch of the at-bat.
For the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox and the Falmouth Commodores, it was that kind of series.
Falmouth did all it could. You thought, just as you did when Eureste kept battling the league’s top prospect, that the Commodores would be the ones to slow the Red Sox down.
Y-D never blinked.
The Red Sox swept the Cape Cod Baseball League championship series two games to none with a 10-4 victory on Friday afternoon at Red Wilson Field. The championship capped a remarkable season – and playoff run – for the Red Sox, who were 5-11 two weeks into the season before catching fire, sustaining it, and riding some of the best playoff pitching the league has seen in years to the top prize.
Many thought this was finally Falmouth’s year, maybe because they wanted it to be. The #WinItForTrundy movement has been embraced by two sets of Commodore teams now and – this year especially – by plenty of fans.
But it wasn’t just that. Falmouth looked like the best team in the league when it swept through the first two rounds of the playoffs, and its veteran team seemed poised for its finishing touch.
It never happened. In those moments that decide baseball games – where you blink or you don’t – the Red Sox simply stared right on through time and again. And when given an inch, they took a mile.
Thursday, they fought to beat a pitcher who struck them out 12 times, scoring all their runs with two outs. Their own pitcher dominated a powerful lineup. Friday, the Red Sox fell behind 2-0 and 4-2, but they answered the first deficit and loudly demolished the second.
The first sign that Y-D would own the big moments came in the fourth inning. Falmouth had just gone ahead 2-0, busting a crack into what was shaping up as another pitcher’s duel. Armed with the lead, Commodore starter Kevin McCanna was well on his way to an eight or nine-pitch scoreless inning. He had two outs and an 0-2 count on Josh Lester.
Lester fouled a pitch off, then took a ball, then fouled another pitch off. Then he inside-outed a soft line drive into left field.
Four batters later – with the help of a pair of Falmouth errors – the game was tied. Marcus Mastrobuoni’s infield hit scored one run, and the other came home after an ensuing error on the throw.
Falmouth went ahead again in the sixth on an RBI double by Boomer White and an RBI single by Austin Afenir. This time, Y-D didn’t let McCanna even sniff a one-two-three inning. Rob Fonseca lined the first pitch of the bottom of the sixth into left for a base hit.
The push was on again, and as was the case throughout the series, it was hard to stop. Lester walked. Brennon Lund – into the starting lineup for the first time since Monday – knocked his third hit of the game to load the bases. Joey Armstrong delivered a sacrifice fly and Mastrobuoni came through again with a base hit to tie the game. Michael Donadio drew a bases-loaded walk to give Y-D the lead.
As soon as the runner touched home, Bickford started stirring in the Y-D bullpen. Falmouth had done some good things and yet here they were, in the one spot they didn’t want to be in – trailing, with Bickford warming.
And then it got worse. Jordan Tarsovich smashed a bases-clearing double to deep right-center. Suddenly, Y-D led 8-4.
Sure enough, Bickford headed to the mound. He’d been dominant in the playoffs and now he had an even bigger cushion to work with. He gave up an uncharacteristic four hits, but no Commodore got past second.
Y-D added two runs in the eighth on a Donadio home run and an RBI single by Nico Giarratano.
In the ninth, Falmouth had a runner on first with one out and league MVP Kevin Newman at the plate. It was maybe a chance for Falmouth to own a moment, to swing things in the other direction. But Newman grounded a 1-0 pitch to third base, where Tarsovich started a game-ending 5-4-3 double play.
The Red Sox went wild, and deservedly so. Mastrobuoni and Walker Buehler were named Co-Playoff MVPs.
It’s their first title since 2007 and their fourth this century, more than any other team.
Their three previous championship clubs were dominant, part of the YDynasty. One of those teams won 31 games in the regular season.
This team will not go into the annals for a season like that, but they share an ending and an impressive route to it. Whether they were getting dominant pitching or chipping away at dominant pitching or playing fantastic defense, they were consistently putting the pressure on. They did it with a group that clearly had a lot of chemistry. They lost a few guys – their regular-season RBI leader is in the minor leagues now – but they mixed in some reinforcements and kept a core together. They knew their starting pitchers were a weapon, and they rode them. They shined in all the big moments.
Y-D players celebrate in a game earlier this postseason. They’re one win away from the title.
BUEHLERMatt Hall (Missouri State) delivered one of the better Cape League championship series pitching performances you’ll ever see for the Falmouth Commodores last night, striking out 12 in 6.2 innings.
And he lost.
That tells you all you need to know about how good the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox were.
Walker Buehler (Vanderbilt) tossed eight shutout innings and the offense steadily chipped away against Hall, scoring all its runs with two outs, as the Red Sox took a 1-0 lead in the championship series with a 5-0 victory at Guv Fuller Field.
The shutout is Y-D’s fourth in seven postseason games and it was the first championship series shutout since 2010, when the Red Sox themselves were held scoreless twice by Cotuit.
The Buehler-Hall match-up shaped up as a special one. Buehler was stellar in limited duty for the Red Sox, after helping Vanderbilt to the national championship. Hall was a mainstay all summer for Falmouth, tying for the league lead in strikeouts.
Pregame impressions were confirmed quickly – very quickly – when the first two innings took about 15 minutes. It was one of those games where you consistently found yourself looking at the innings box on the scoreboard and saying, “Already?”
Hall seemed a little better than Buehler in the early going, facing the minimum through three and stranding a runner on second in the fourth. He strike out the side in the fifth, but he also fell behind. Josh Lester (Missouri) was hit by a pitch to start the inning. After two strikeouts by Hall, Marcus Mastrobuoni (St. John’s) doubled to deep left field, plating Lester for the 1-0 lead.
Hall came back with two K’s in a scoreless sixth, but Lester doubled with one out in the seventh. After Hall struck out T.J. Wharton (Catawba), the Red Sox delivered more two-out magic, by the skin of their teeth. Hall and the rest of the Commodores thought he had a strikeout of Joey Armstrong (UNLV) when he dropped in a 2-2 curveball that must have been a little low. On the next pitch, Armstrong smacked an RBI double to make it 2-0.
Mastrobuoni followed with a single and Armstrong beat the throw home. After Hall departed to a rousing ovation, A.J. Simcox (Tennessee) reached on a ground ball that got past third, allowing Mastrobuoni to score.
It was a hard-to-swallow inning for Hall and the Commodores, who had nearly escaped with the score still 1-0.
But it may not have mattered anyway.
Buehler was on cruise control. He gave up three hits in eight innings and walked only one. If not for three hit batsmen, Falmouth would have scarcely had runners on base.
Buehler’s best work came as the lead grew. After his team’s three-run seventh inning, he gave up a leadoff double to Jake Madsen (Ohio) in the bottom half. He got Shaun Chase (Oregon) on the first pitch, then struck out Conor Costello (Oklahoma State) and Matt Eureste (San Jacinto) without throwing a ball to either of them.
In the eighth, Falmouth sent its middle of the order to the plate. Buehler got Steven Duggar (Clemson) to ground out then struck out Kevin Newman (Arizona) and Conner Hale (LSU) looking. That’s batting champion Kevin Newman and league RBI leader Conner Hale. And they were frozen.
With that, Buehler departed, giving way to William Strode (Florida State). With one more insurance run courtesy of a homer by Mastrobuoni – who had a single, a double, a homer and three RBI – Strode cruised through the ninth. He worked around a two-out walk to finish off the victory.
The teams will now get set for game two, slated for 4 p.m. today in Yarmouth. It should be another terrific pitching match-up with Kevin Duchene (Illinois) going for Y-D and Kevin McCanna (Rice) trying to keep Falmouth alive. Duchene struck out 12 in 7.1 innings of one-hit ball in his previous playoff start, Y-D’s game three win over Orleans. McCanna, a two-year Commodore, allowed one run in eight innings in a playoff start against Hyannis.
Notes
How about the bottom of Y-D’s lineup? Mastrobuoni – the eighth place batter -was the hitting star of the night with the single, the double and the homer, and two of those came against Hall. Armstrong, batting seventh, had two hits and an RBI and ninth-place hitter Simcox had a hit and an RBI.
Walker Buehler’s performance is about as good as it gets in a Cape League championship series game. The last one I remember that was this good was in 2010, when Matt Andriese tossed a complete-game shutout for Cotuit.
Buehler now has a 0.00 ERA in 15.1 postseason innings. Obviously, it’s a remarkable stat, and it holds up historically as well. Going back to 2000 – the oldest archives on the Cape League’s web site – you can find plenty of 0.00 playoff ERAs but not a single one that was earned over that many innings. Buehler has been fantastic.
Y-D didn’t need to use Phil Bickford Thursday night, and that’s bad news for Falmouth. If Duchene gets Friday’s game to the seventh with his team in the lead and Bickford takes the mound, I would not be optimistic if I were a Commodore fan.
Shout-out to Mrs. Right Field Fog an outstanding scorekeeping performance. She brought her A game for the playoffs.
Great crowd of almost 3,000 in Falmouth last night. I would bet on an even higher number jamming into the bandbox at Red Wilson Field today. Get there early.
Jeff Trundy will try to lead Falmouth to its first title since 1980.
The only good thing about Wednesday’s rainout is that it gives me a little time to get some preview thoughts down. Primary thought: It’s going to be a heck of a series.
First, some points of reference for the series:
Y-D and Falmouth have met twice in the Cape League championship series, in 2004 and 2007. Y-D won both match-ups, the bookends on its dynasty run of three titles in four years. Y-D has been to the finals twice since then, losing to Cotuit in 2010 and Wareham in 2012. Falmouth made the finals in 2011 and lost to Harwich.
Falmouth owns the longest championship drought in the league. Its last title was 1980, when it beat Chatham. The next-longest drought belongs to Hyannis, whose last crown was in 1981. Chatham is the only other team without a championship this century. Its last was in 1998.
This is the fourth straight year without a No. 1 seed in the championship series. Before that, at least one No. 1 seed had made the finals for 14 consecutive years (although it was easier for the No. 1’s to make it before the playoffs expanded).
It’s hard to understate how good the playoff pitching has been for these teams. The Red Sox have had the dominant, clutch performances, but Falmouth has an even better team ERA. The Commodores have given up four runs in 36 innings for a 1.00 ERA. For Y-D, three of four wins have been shutouts.
The rainout should only help the pitching. I’d expect both teams to have things lined up almost perfectly, with the exception of Y-D having had to use Justin Jacome to get out of the East finals. Walker Buehler and Kevin Duchene should be good to go for Y-D, while Falmouth should have the trio of Matt Hall, Kevin McCanna and Alex Young ready.
If that’s the way things shake out, Falmouth might have the edge with the three big arms to Y-D’s two. In its one playoff game not started by Jacome, Buehler or Duchene, Y-D lost 9-2. Jacome could come back for a game three on Saturday, but that would be on only three days’ rest.
If the starting pitching match-ups don’t do it for you, just wait until the late innings. Falmouth’s bullpen hasn’t given up a run in the playoffs, and the back end is anchored by flamethrower Garrett Cleavinger. Y-D has been touched up a little more, but any bullpen that includes Phil Bickford is a good bullpen. Bickford, the Cape League’s Top Pro Prospect award winner, had the equivalent of his Heisman moment for that award when he struck out the side in the ninth Tuesday night to punch Y-D’s ticket to the finals.
The lowest team ERA in the Cape League playoffs last year was 2.57. Falmouth, Y-D and Harwich are all under that bar this year.
Helping the cause in the pitching department is some pretty stellar defense. Falmouth has made three errors in the postseason. Y-D – in six games – has made one.
When comparing the offenses of the two teams, extra-base hits is an interesting place to start. Y-D has seven in six games. Falmouth has nine in only four games. That jibes with a general impression that Falmouth has a little more pop.
Falmouth also gets on base at a better clip – .374 to .297.
The top three hitters in the postseason have all been eliminated, leaving a Y-D Red Sox atop the list. Andrew Stevenson, right? Jordan Tarsovich? A.J. Simcox? Try Michael Donadio. The St. John’s freshman was the Big East’s Newcomer of the Year this spring and he spent most of his summer in the Hamptons Collegiate Baseball League, where he won the batting title and MVP award. He didn’t begin his CCBL career until July 31 and had a total of two hits in four regular-season games, but he has a hit in every playoff game, including a home run. He’s batting .409 in the postseason.
Marcus Mastrobuoni has been another key addition for the Red Sox. He hit .373 this spring for California State Stanislaus, and hit .313 in five regular-season games for the Red Sox. He started at catcher in the last two games of the Harwich series and went 1-for-3 in the clincher.
On the Falmouth side, Conner Hale has paced the offense, and there probably isn’t a better offensive threat in the series. Hale is slashing .375/.444/.688 in the playoffs with a homer and seven RBI. He has driven in a third of his team’s postseason runs. If you’re making bets on playoff MVP, he’s the favorite.
Hale is part of a lineup that’s just very solid at this point. Jake Madsen quietly hit .346 for the Commodores in the regular season and he’s a consistent, veteran hitter, much like Cameron O’Brien. Hale, Madsen and O’Brien, in fact, are all rising seniors. Throw in talented guys like Boomer White, Matt Eureste and Steven Duggar, plus some guys who aren’t even starting every day, and it’s a very deep lineup. And they’ve got that Newman guy too, the one who wins all the batting titles.
Mrs. RFF and I are planning to be in Falmouth for game one. Can’t wait.
I suppose it’s prediction time. It’s never an easy task and this year is no different. You have to like the way both of these teams are playing – enthusiasm, good defense, fantastic pitching. I think I like Falmouth a little more, with its veteran offense tipping the scales. Feel free to share your own picks in the comments.
Phil Bickford struck out six in 2.2 innings to close out Y-D’s win on Tuesday.
There is some debate in sports whether “clutch” is a real, quantifiable thing.
Wherever you stand on the issue, the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox have given one side of the argument some ammunition in the 2014 Cape Cod Baseball League playoffs. In the process, they’ve given Cape League fans a pair of classics.
The Red Sox have pitched very well in the post-season. And when they’ve had to pitch well, they’ve pitched beyond well.
Last night, Justin Jacome (UC Santa Barbara) and Phil Bickford (Cal State Fullerton) combined on a shutout as Y-D edged Harwich 2-0 in game three of the East finals to clinch a spot in the Cape League championship.
The Red Sox have now played two decisive third games this postseason and have won them by 1-0 and 2-0 scores. The fact that they’re decisive games is one thing. Then their opponents have upped the ante by pitching gems themselves, and Y-D hasn’t blinked.
Clutch.
Last night, Jacome squared off with Harwich’s Zack Erwin (Clemson). They were both brilliant, but Y-D scratched a run across in the second inning on a two-out chopper from Marcus Mastrobuoni (Cal State Stanislaus) that the Mariners couldn’t handle. Josh Lester (Missouri) scored.
Jacome gave up a double to Sal Annunziata (Seton Hall) to start the bottom of the second, as it looked like the Mariners would have a quick answer, but Jacome got out of trouble. From there, he allowed just one more hit, a two-out single in the fifth.
Jacome went 6.1 innings, allowing three hits, striking out six and walking none.
He left with his team clinging to the 1-0 lead but gave the ball to the very capable hands of Bickford, the former first-round pick. Bickford finished off a scoreless seventh and struck out two in a perfect eighth. His team added an insurance run in the ninth on a Brennon Lund (BYU) sacrifice fly, but Bickford didn’t need it.
Facing the middle of one of the best batting orders in the league, Bickford gave up a leadoff single to C.J. Hinojosa (Texas).
And then he was masterful.
Bickford struck out Ian Happ (Cincinnati) – one of the league’s top hitters – on three pitches. Then he struck out Anthony Hermelyn (Virginia Tech) on three pitches. Harwich’s last chance was Annunziata, who owned the double in the second. Bickford needed four pitches this time, but he struck Annunziata out, too, sending Y-D into the championship with a flourish.
For the second straight year, a team is into the finals after needing three games to win each of its first two playoff series. Last year, that team was Cotuit and the Kettleers went on to the title.
Y-D will match up with Falmouth, who is 4-0 in the playoffs.
The championship series is scheduled to begin tonight, but heavy rain is in the forecast, so Thursday might be more likely.
Levi MaVorhis, pictured earlier this summer, was part of a cobbled-together for playoff-bound Brewster.
They had pitchers in the outfield and lost their finale 12-2. But I guess that’s what happens when you make a run this surprising.
For the Brewster Whitecaps, the run continues.
Harwich beat Brewster 12-2 in the last game of the season for both teams last night, but Chatham lost to Orleans, meaning the Whitecaps have grabbed the fourth and final playoff spot in the East.
As detailed yesterday , the Whitecaps were eight points back of Chatham with seven games to play but delivered their best baseball of the summer in a late surge. Chatham lost six of its last seven, so this is what we’re left with.
We’ll see if Brewster can put anything together in the playoffs. Pitchers Levi MaVorhis (Kansas State) and Cody Ponce (Cal Poly Pomona) were on the outfield corners last night, so the Whitecaps will hopefully get some reinforcements. Harwich pounded out 15 hits in finishing the season with a bang. The Mariners ended up with a 26-16-2 record.
The Brewster game was over well before the Chatham-Orleans game, meaning the door was open for the Anglers, but they couldn’t step through. Starting pitcher Max Tishman (Wake Forest) was touched up for five unearned runs as Chatham made four errors. Orleans then scored six runs off Kyle Davis (USC), who’s been Chatham’s best pitcher all summer. Chris Shaw (Boston College) hit his eighth home run and will likely finish as the league leader, but it wasn’t enough. David Thompson (Miami) had four hits and David Fletcher (Loyola Marymount) had three to lead the Firebirds. With the win, Orleans grabbed the No. 2 seed by a point over Y-D.
Brewster will be making its first playoff appearance since 2011, which is also the last time Chatham didn’t make it.
Bourne 5, Wareham 0
The Braves still have one game to play but have already secured the best record in the league thanks to their third straight victory, and their second straight shutout. Six pitchers combined on the shutout, with the win going to reliever Max Knutson (Nebraska). John Gorman (Boston College) and Joey Strain (Winthrop), the last two pitchers to the mound, both struck out the side in an inning each. Richard Martin Jr. (Florida) went 4-for-4 with a home run to bring his batting average to .358, which is second best in the league. Mark Laird (LSU) added three hits and Gavin Collins (Mississippi State) homered. The teams will meet again in the season finale tonight.
Falmouth 4, Cotuit 2
Falmouth beat Cotuit 4-2, which means the seedings in the West are now set. Behind Bourne and Falmouth, Hyannis will be the No. 3 seed and Cotuit will be the No. 4. With the right combination of results, Cotuit could have jumped Hyannis but is now two points back with one to play and can do no better than a tie, with Hyannis getting the tiebreaker. Five Falmouth pitchers limited Cotuit to just four hits. Ryan Moseley (Texas Tech) was credited with the win and Matt Eckelman (St. Louis) got the save. The Commodore offense was led by Kevin Newman (Arizona), who was in danger of losing his grip on the batting title and responded with a 3-for-4 night. He now has a .370 average and is in line to win his second straight crown. Conner Hale (LSU) added two hits and two RBI and he’ll likely finish as the league leader in RBI.
Y-D 3, Hyannis 2
Y-D scored a run in the eighth to finish the season with a 3-2 victory over Hyannis. Josh Lester (Missouri) was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to plate what proved to be the winning run. Andrew Stevenson (LSU) and Nico Giarratano (San Francisco) had two hits each to lead the Y-D attack, while Brennon Lund (BYU) and newcomer Marcus Mastrobuoni (Cal State Stanislaus) had an RBI each. Both teams used a lot of pitchers, with Y-D’s Josh Staumont (Azusa Pacific) picking up the win and Dimitri Kourtis (Mercer) grabbing the save.
What to Watch
Two makeup games on the docket tonight to conclude the 2014 regular season. Neither game will have any bearing on playoff seedings, but keep an eye on Falmouth as Kevin Newman tries to clinch the batting title. He’s at .370. Second-place Richard Martin Jr. of Bourne is at .358 and will also likely be in action.
