Chatham, Mass. – The bases are juiced with no outs, and it's a tie ballgame in the bottom of the ninth. Jonathan Adelmann (Bucknell) stood on the mound, wondering how to escape such a jam to avoid being walked off.
While it was going to be a rigid path, the RHP buckled down and took it pitch to pitch. After loading the bases, he settled down and looked like a different pitcher. He went 1-2-3 with a pair of strikeouts to send the game to extras, where the Kettleers won 4-2.
“Loading the bases isn’t exactly what you want, but the goal is just trying to focus pitch to pitch. It’s great knowing you have a dugout of guys behind you,” Adelmann says. “You hear them get louder and louder. There was a lot of energy coming out of the dugout. It felt good to get out of that jam and get a win.”
With the bases loaded and no outs, Adelmann was on the bump by himself, and the outcome of the game was in his hands. Facing a quality lineup like the Chatham Anglers isn’t easy, especially when there’s no room for error. Some guys would have folded under the immense pressure of that situation, but not the 6-foot-7 right-hander.
He struck out back-to-back batters before facing Ashton Larson (Texas). The longhorn took the first pitch, then hit a slow dribbler to second baseman Luke Matthews (Kent State). Both sides held their breath, just waiting for what would happen.
Matthews fielded the ball and tossed to second for the force out to end the inning. Adelmann had done it. He got through a bases-loaded jam to send the game into the 10th inning.
“He [Adelmann] just lost it for a while and then struck out really good hitters. Like, they’ve got some guys that will play for a long time, and he just really dominated them,” says Cotuit manager Loren Hibbs.
The Kettleers scored two runs in the top of the 10th on RBI singles by Nolan Stevens (Oklahoma) and Matthews before Adelmann returned to the mound.
Even after he got out of the jam, some coaches may hesitate to bring him out again, fearing he may have another flare-up. Not Hibbs, he trusted his guy.
“His stuff was good; he just made some bad pitches and got behind in the count, but we decided to hang with him. We weren’t going to go over his pitch count, we stayed within it, and it ended up being the right decision [to bring him back out],” Hibbs says.
Aside from an intentional walk, he tossed a perfect 10th inning. Adelmann struck out a batter, forced a groundout, and then a deep flyout to clinch a 4-2 victory for the Ketts.
A win like that can provide significant momentum down the stretch, especially how it ended. The Cotuit offense was quiet for most of the night, but after he got out of that tough spot, it lit a fire underneath the bats.
“You have 100% confidence in the pitcher and every guy around you until proven otherwise, and you lose the game. I think it showed a lot of guts,” said Stevens. “Being in a position where the bases are loaded with no outs. I pitched for two years in college, and it shows a lot for you to shut three guys down.”
After that extra-innings rally, Cotuit is now tied for first place in a crowded Western Division and has a chance to take sole possession of first when the Y-D Red Sox roll into town on Wednesday.
