Pivotal sequence

While the Braves have played much-improved baseball over the past week, there has been a consistent flaw in their game through their most recent stretch: setting the tone early.

Looking at the entire season, there isn’t a glaring disparity in that category, as Bourne has drawn first blood in seven of its 17 contests this season entering Saturday. But it hadn’t scored first in a game in eight days, the last time being on June 28 in a home matchup with the Cotuit Kettleers.

Kozeal ended that somber streak, ironically at Lowell Park against the Kettleers, during his first at-bat of the night.

Hitting second on Saturday, Kozeal got all of the first pitch he saw, sending a solo shot 370 feet down the right field line. Cotuit answered back with a run in the bottom of the first, but there’s no doubt that Kozeal’s blast helped the Braves offense get going off the jump.

“It was good for us as a team, just [to] get the tempo going,” Kozeal said. “You could kind of tell just with the sky, it was going to get dark early and we knew we needed to jump on top, we figured something like this would happen. So it was good for the team.”

A look ahead

As has been the case for most of the season, the team Bourne is monitoring closest is Falmouth. Going into Saturday night, two games separated the fourth-place Braves and last-place Commodores in the Cape Cod West Division. However, that gap has been narrowed.

Now 3-2 in their last five games, Falmouth upset one of the hottest teams on the Cape in the Chatham Anglers on Saturday. This result, paired with a Bourne defeat, positions the Braves just one game out of last place.

What only adds more excitement to this standings battle is that these two teams will face off Sunday night at Doran Park. Two contests into their five-game season series, both Bourne and Falmouth have won one game apiece, with the Commodores taking the most recent meeting on June 27 by a score of 4-2.

Landers will go with southpaw Tucker Novotny (Minnesota), who has one Cape League appearance under his belt — a three-inning start where he allowed three earned runs and 10 base runners in a win against Chatham on June 29.

Falmouth’s starter will likely be left-hander Parker Coil (Arkansas), who has yet to start a game this summer but has five relief appearances under his belt. He has pitched to a 4.32 ERA with 10 strikeouts in 8 1/3 frames and is 2-for-2 on save opportunities. His most recent outing came in a 6-4 win over Cotuit that saw him allow just one hit in the final 2 2/3 innings.

First pitch will be at 6 p.m.

Notes

Kozeal’s first-inning bomb was the fastest a Brave has hit a home run this summer. He now has hits in back-to-back games and has a three-game on-base streak… All four of Bourne’s home runs this summer have come on the road… Drawing a walk on Saturday, shortstop Clay Grady (Virginia Tech) has reached base in six straight games, dating back to June 28 against Cotuit… With a single on Saturday, Holcomb has knocks in three consecutive games… Conrad’s hit on Saturday increased his total to 19 in 10 games. He boasts a .500 average and 1.167 OPS… Working four walks on Saturday, Bourne leads the league in that category with 91… The Braves have thrown the second-most strikeouts (175) on the Cape.