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Red Sox out to defend title

YD_15 quick look
 
The Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox surged to their fourth Cape Cod Baseball League championship in 11 years last summer, completing the run with a sweep of Falmouth in the title series. They made the run after finishing third in the East Division during the regular season and shuffling their roster regularly.

Another talented group, led by a deep pitching staff and a host of big-name freshmen, is on its way.
 

FIVE TO WATCH

1. Mike Shawaryn
2. J.J. Schwarz
3. Will Toffey
4. Cole Billingsley
5. Brett Adcock
 

NOTABLE

  • Maryland is headed to a Super Regional and ace Mike Shawaryn has been a big reason why. After setting a school record for wins as a freshman, Shawaryn took the leap into bona fide ace territory this year, going 13-2 with an eye-popping 133 strikeouts. This may be the first preview, but it’s hard to imagine anyone in the Cape League has a better pitching coming to town than Y-D has with Shawaryn.

  • Shawaryn heads a list of starting pitchers with strong track records on the Y-D roster. Brett Adcock, Brandon Bailey and Shane Bieber were workhorses this year, with Adcock and Bailey both striking out more than 90.

  • Y-D had the league’s most fearsome closer last year in Phil Bickford. David Ellingson may not have the same pedigree, but he’s got the numbers. The Georgetown standout saved nine games with an ERA under 1.00 this season.

  • The Cape League always has a few native sons in uniform. Barnstable native Will Toffey could be the best in recent memory. The Vanderbilt freshman already lit up the Futures League last year and has forced his way into the lineup for the defending College World Series champions as a freshman.

  • TCU’s Brian Howard stands 6’9. That is all.

  • Y-D is slated to have three freshman catchers from powerhouse SEC programs. All have big potential, but J.J. Schwarz has made it good on more quickly than the others, with 15 homers for Florida in his debut season.

  • Y-D could have a very athletic outfield, with Stephen Wrenn of Georgia and South Alabama’s Cole Billingsley patrolling. Wrenn had started at center field in every game of his college career and flashed potential for Bourne last summer. Billingsley ranked 16th in the nation in stolen bases this year.

  • St. John’s Mike Donadio didn’t have a great sophomore year, at least compared to his Big East Rookie of the Year campaign in 2014, but he’ll be a valuable presence for the Red Sox this summer. A late addition last year, Donadio hit .367 with two home runs in the playoffs.

  • The Red Sox will likely have one of the youngest teams in the league, with 13 freshman ticketed for Red Wilson Field. That includes nine position players, who often struggle as freshmen on the Cape.

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    PITCHERS

    Brett Adcock – SO – Michigan – Third-team all-Big 10 lefty K’d 95 in 90 IP, with a 3.10 ERA
    Brandon Bailey – SO – Gonzaga – Strong starter for Gonzaga went 8-3 with 3.72 ERA and tied for 3rd in WCC with 91 Ks
    Shane Bieber – SO – UC Santa Barbara – Dominated in West Coast League last summer and earned all-conference nod this year
    Ben Bowden – SO – Vanderbilt – Native of Lynn, Mass., has been valuable bullpen arm, with 45 Ks in 34.2 IP
    Gabe Cramer – JR – Stanford – Saw limited action in first two years, emerged as good reliever this year
    David Ellingson – SO – Georgetown – Dominant closer had 9 saves, .75 ERA this season
    Alex Faedo – FR – Florida – Late-round pick last year has been solid swing guy this spring, with 3.36 ERA
    Mitch Hart – FR – USC – Jumped right into weekend rotation and posted 4.07 ERA; second on team in IP
    Brian Howard – SO – TCU – Six-foot-nine righty struck out 43 in 43 innings this spring, pitching mostly out of bullpen
    Dustin Hunt – SO – Northeastern – ERA ballooned near five, but righty from Andover, Mass., led Huskies in Ks
    Dalton Lehnen – FR – Cincinnati – Freshman lefty led Cincy in starts but went 1-7 with 5.56 ERA
    Mike Shawaryn – SO – Maryland – One of nation’s best pitchers went 13-2, had 1.66 ERA and struck out 133, 4th nationally
    Ricky Thomas – FR – Fresno State – Freshman lefty had solid debut with 3.92 ERA
    Chris Viall – SO – Stanford – Solid swing man on pitching staff had 4.73 ERA this season
     

    CATCHERS

    Mike Papierski – FR – LSU – 16th-rd pick in 2014 draft has hit .214 in limited action for loaded LSU team
    Nathan Rodriguez – FR – Arkansas – Talented catching prospect was declared ineligible this season and did not play
    J.J. Schwarz – FR – Florida – 17th-rd pick last year has had huge freshman season: .320 with 15 HR, 66 RBI
     

    INFIELDERS

    Tommy Edman – SO – Stanford – Started every game this spring, hit .296 with a homer
    Dalton Guthrie – FR – Florida – Late-round pick in 2014 has started every game in debut season, posting .290 average
    Ryan Lillard – FR – Arizona State – Iowa native hit .233 in 26 games as a freshman
    Will Toffey – FR – Vanderbilt – Barnstable native & top prospect in Futures League last year hitting .309 in first year at VU
    Connor Wong – FR – Houston – Hit .248 with six homers in first season with Cougars
     

    OUTFIELDERS

    Cole Billingsley – JR – South Alabama – Had big year after medical redshirt in 2014, batting .345 and swiping 30 bags
    Luke Bonfield – FR – Arkansas – Mets’ 21st-rd pick in ’14 has hit .164 in limited duty for Razorbacks
    Michael Donadio – SO – St. John’s – Big East Rookie of Year in 2014 batted .302 this year
    Ryan Noda – FR – Cincinnati – Hit .230 and was second on UC to former CCBL all-star Ian Happ in HRs with 7
    Stephen Wrenn – SO – Georgia – Has started all 109 games of UGA career in CF; hit .324 with 8 HR this year

     

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    Wrapping Up the Championship

    YD14_team trophy

     

    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:

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    Champs

    Y-D players get the championship trophy.
    Y-D players get the championship trophy.

     

    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.

    And they never blinked.

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    Rainout Reading

    Jeff Trundy will try to lead Falmouth to its first title since 1980.
    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.

    • Posted on

    The Beat Goes On

    Michael Murray went seven strong innings for Y-D in Sunday's win.
    Michael Murray went seven strong innings for Y-D in Sunday’s win.

     

    The 2014 Cape League playoffs have been defined by starting pitching, and the beat went on as the division finals got underway Sunday evening.

    In Harwich, Y-D’s Michael Murray (Florida Gulf Coast) allowed two runs in seven innings as the Red Sox knocked off top-seeded Harwich 7-2. And in Falmouth, Alex Young (TCU) gave the Commodores a series lead with eight innings of one-run ball in a 3-1 victory over Cotuit.

    Y-D starting pitchers have now gone at least seven innings and allowed no more than two runs in the Red Sox’ four playoff games. It’s amazing that they lost a game in that stretch, but it was only because Justin Jacome (UC Santa Barbara) was out-dueled by CCBL outstanding pitcher honoree Kolton Mahoney in game one of the East semis. After that, Walker Buehler (Vanderbilt) and Kevin Duchene (Illinois) both went seven-plus shutout innings.

    On Sunday, Murray gave up a first-inning run on a Sal Annunziata (Seton Hall) sacrifice fly, ending the shutout streak but not Y-D’s chances. He retired 11 in a row before a Kenny Towns (Virginia) double led to a run in the fifth, but he righted the ship for two more scoreless frames. Dimitri Kourtis (Mercer) relieved him and gave up just one hit in two scoreless innings.

    Harwich pitching had been pretty good in its own right in a series sweep of Brewster, but Y-D scored three runs in the third inning and four in the fourth to take control.

    Andrew Stevenson (LSU) started it all with one swing of the bat. He smacked a three-run homer in the third to put Y-D in front for good. Stevenson, A.J. Simcox (Tennessee) and Michael Donadio (St. John’s) added RBI in a four-run fourth inning, and that was all Y-D needed.

    Mrs. Right Field Fog and I were on hand in Harwich, relegated to the edge of the woods thanks to a huge crowd. The Y-D faithful was out in full force and had a lot to cheer about it. That team is having some fun, too, and is clearly riding some momentum. Harwich will need a big effort today to stay alive.

    Over in the West, Falmouth scored all its run on a Matt Eureste (San Jacinto) home run in the second inning and had no trouble making the lead stand up.

    Young might have been in the running for CCBL Outstanding Pitcher honors if his Horned Frogs hadn’t made it to Omaha, and he pitched like it Sunday. He gave up one run on four hits and struck out eight in eight innings. Young, whose first CCBL start was on July 5, has not allowed more than two runs in any outing. He has now struck out 36 and walked four, to go with a 1.41 ERA.

    Matt Eckelman (St. Louis) pitched the ninth for the save.

    As for the Falmouth offense, Eureste delivered. While Kevin Newman (Arizona) was the league MVP and Conner Hale (LSU) the league RBI leaded, Eureste has been a huge key to success. He finished the regular season hitting .292. Sunday’s home run was all the offense Falmouth needed.

     

    What to Watch

    Harwich at Y-D, 4 p.m.
    Falmouth at Cotuit, 4 p.m.

    Starting pitchers are TBA for three of the four teams, with James Mulry (Northeastern) slotted in for Harwich. It’ll be interesting to see if Y-D can go back to the top of its rotation, or if everyone will need another day.

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    Still Alive

    Brendan Hendriks is greeted in the dugout after his go-ahead home run Friday.
    Brendan Hendriks is greeted in the dugout after his go-ahead home run Friday.

     

    Higher-seeded teams owned the first games of their opening-round playoff series, and two of them held serve in game two.

    We shouldn’t be surprised at the two teams that avoided sweeps. Cotuit and Y-D, winners of five of the last 10 Cape League championships, don’t go down easy.

    Cotuit rallied from an early 5-0 deficit to beat top-seeded Bourne 10-7, while Y-D got a dominant performance from Walker Buehler (Vanderbilt) and broke out the bats in a 9-0 shutout of East No. 2 Orleans. Both series will conclude with game threes today.

    For Cotuit, it’s been an up-and-down season, dominated by the fact that the Kettleers just don’t have much starting pitching. They have made it work by cobbling things together, and of course, with their backs against the wall yesterday, they made it work by doing it very well. Seven pitchers took the mound, and once Cotuit made its comeback, the final three pitchers combined on five scoreless innings.

    The pitching contingent has been led all summer by Adam Whitt (Nevada), who was presented with the league’s outstanding relief pitcher award before Friday’s game. Whitt, unlike most recipients of that award, was not strictly a closer, often pitching two or three innings, whether his team was winning or losing. Yesterday, he went the final two innings, giving up no runs on one hit. Austin Sexton (Mississippi State) and Jackson McClelland (Pepperdine) had scoreless outings before Whitt took the hill.

    The comeback made the strong relief work count. Bourne’s Richard Martin Jr. (Florida) led off the game with a home run, and Cotuit trailed 5-0 after three but quickly got back into the game with two runs in the third and one in the fourth. Bourne pulled back away at 7-3, but Cotuit got within 7-6 then scored three in the seventh and one in the eighth to take control.

    Logan Taylor (Texas A&M), Jackson Glines (Michigan) and Brendan Hendriks (San Francisco) all homered for the Kettleers, with Hendriks’s two-run blast in the seventh giving them the lead for good. Kyle Holder (San Diego) added three hits.

    Martin and Blake Davey (Connecticut) both homered for Bourne, but it wasn’t enough. The Braves had only two hits after the fifth inning.

    Over in Yarmouth, the Red Sox cruised past Orleans 9-0 after they were shut-out 3-0 in game one. Buehler, who pitched briefly with Team USA but found his way back to the Cape, allowed just a pair of singles in 7.1 innings. He struck out five and walked only one.

    Y-D’s starting rotation, even with the loss of Cody Poteet, still looks like it could be the best in the playoffs. Justin Jacome was the hard-luck loser against Orleans ace Kolton Mahoney, but Buehler got the Red Sox back on track. Drake Owenby (Tennessee) retired all five batters he faced to finish off the win.

    The Y-D offense made sure no one would be a hard-luck loser this time. Jesse Jenner (San Diego) and Michael Donadio (St. John’s) had three hits each to pace a 13-hit attack. Donadio homered. Nico Giarratano (San Francisco) and Timothy Wharton (Catawba) drove in two runs each.

     

    Harwich 5, Brewster 0

    Top-seeded Harwich punched its ticket into the East finals with a shutout of Brewster. Michael Boyle (Radford) went six innings with eight strikeouts before Johnathan Frebis (Middle Tennessee State) and Jacob Evans (Oklahoma) finished off the shutout. For much of the game, Harwich needed that kind of effort, with Brewster pitchers limiting the Mariner offense to one run through the first seven innings. But Harwich scored three in the eighth and one in the ninth for a little extra breathing room. Joe McCarthy (Virginia) went 4-for-5 – and is now 7-for-10 in the playoffs – while Ian Happ (Cincinnati) had two hits and two RBI. For Brewster, Cody Ponce (Cal Poly Pomona) allowed one run in three innings and Levi MaVorhis (Kansas State) – who played a lot more outfield than he ever expected in this series – pitched three scoreless frames. The Whitecaps, who made a strong late-season run, were short-handed in the playoffs and didn’t stand much of a chance. Harwich now gets a day off before beginning play in the East finals.

     

    Falmouth 5, Hyannis 1

    Falmouth also rode strong pitching to a sweep of Hyannis. Kevin McCanna (Rice) allowed one run in eight innings, needing just 100 pitches to get that far. He struck out six and scattered five hits. The Commodore offense did the rest. Conner Hale (LSU) and Boomer White (TCU) knocked in two runs each while Kevin Newman (Arizona) and Austin Afenir (Oral Roberts) had two hits. Falmouth scored three in the first, meaning it never trailed in the series. Donnie Dewees (North Florida) scored the lone run for Hyannis in the seventh inning. The Harbor Hawks, who overcame a mid-season slump to grab the third seed, had beaten Falmouth three straight times in the regular season, including a 10-0 win on August 1.

     

    What to Watch

    Cotuit at Bourne, 6 p.m.
    Y-D at Orleans, 7 p.m.

    I’ll be interested to see how the pitching match-up turns out in Orleans. The Red Sox have a solid starter going in Kevin Duchene, while Orleans is turning to Kyle Twomey, who’s been very good but has also pitched mostly out of the bullpen. His longest outing is five innings.