WAREHAM, Mass. – Under the bright lights of the Cape Cod Baseball League, the switch to wood bats is a huge test for hitters after spending the year utilizing metal ones.

Through the first three games of the 2024 season, the Kettleers are barely treading water offensively, especially when facing left-handed pitching as they fell to the Wareham Gatemen 4-2 at Spillane Field on Monday.

“I like the challenge of our left-handed hitters. I always brought a lot of left-handed hitters. And the challenge for them is they don't see a lot of quality left-handed pitching at school,” said Kettleers manager Mike Roberts. “And as you're watching young men play, unless you're gonna be a platoon player in professional baseball, you got to be able to handle left on left.”

The Cotuit batting order featured eight left-handers against Gatemen southpaw Braeden Sloan (TCU) and was stifled for much of his outing of five full innings pitched, surrendering just two hits while striking out seven on his effective arsenal of offspeed pitches.

“Their lefty pitcher was consistent. He threw a lot of strikes and his changeup really had us out front,” said Kettleers shortstop P.J. Moutzouridis (Cal). “We weren't really disciplined as much as I think we're capable of but you know, it's a good night for them pitching and a rough night for us hitting.”

Moutzouridis, the lone right-handed bat in the lineup, was responsible for the only run off Sloan on the night as he kickstarted a scoring chance with a two-strike single in the top of the third with one out. Although he turned the lineup over, his legs were the catalyst as he immediately stole second on the first pitch of A.J. Gracia’s (Duke) at-bat.

The speedster took off for third on the next pitch, but this time the ball was put in play up the middle. Fielded by the Gatemen second baseman Ty Dooley (Coastal Carolina), Gracia was out at first but Wareham couldn’t put away Moutzouridis who didn’t settle for advancing 90 feet. With the aid of Roberts’ encouragement waving him home all the way, he scored easily when Eli Putnam’s (Davidson) rushed throw home sailed up the line to tie the game at 1-1.

“Oh, I love his style. I saw that we weren't going to put the ball in play much. I just said, ‘Run Run,’” said Roberts about Moutzouridis. “… everybody has to run some in this league. Nobody's gonna sit back and just hit the ball up against the wall in this league or not many teams do. So I think you'll notice that we'll be running a lot more.”

But for the next five frames, Wareham held Cotuit’s offense at bay while they retook the lead in the fourth inning and tacked on what would become important runs in the bottom of the sixth and seventh innings.

The Kettleers bullpen logged five considerably strong innings as four pitchers made their season debut, including starter Logan Lunceford (Wake Forest), as the only blemish on his line through his three innings came from a Rylan Galvan homer in the bottom of the second.

James Ellwanger (Dallas Baptist) entered first in relief, striking out four while reaching the highest fastball velocity of the season for Cotuit at 96 mph. The 6’5” righthander allowed an unearned run in the fourth as he pitched 1 2/3 innings.

Southpaw Ian May (Cal) finished off the final out of the fifth inning for Ellwanger, but couldn’t put away the Gatemen as easily in the bottom of the sixth. A pair of two-out hits created enough of a rally to give the Gatemen a 3-1 advantage, which was courtesy of a Putnam double off the center field wall and an Antonio Jimenez (Miami) single down the third base line.

May dealt with trouble in the seventh as well, once two runners reached scoring position after a passed ball. Mike Villani (Long Beach St.) was called in to get out of the jam with two outs, but couldn’t quite do the job as a wild pitch allowed the fourth run for Wareham to cross home.

Although Cotuit was held in check at the plate for most of the game, the bats woke up in the second inning against Jake Faherty (Arkansas) vying for the six-out save. After retiring the first batter in the top of the ninth, the next three batters reached safely on two singles and a hit batsman to put the tying run on base. Kien Vu (Arizona St.) knocked an RBI single into shallow center field to put the Kettleers one step closer to a comeback.

But Faherty would lock down the Cotuit order with all the pressure on him, striking out Brandon Compton (Arizona St.) with heaters after he entered cold off the bench down in an 0-1 count and inducing a groundout from Moutzouridis for the final out.

“You always want to battle at the end against a good pitcher. And I think as you've witnessed, pitching has pretty much dominated the game so far,” said Roberts. “When guys switch to wood and all of a sudden they're under the Cape lights-- not quite as good as at school and no metal bats, the ball doesn’t fly. It's a challenge early in the year but we'll adapt and we'll get better.”

The Kettleers look to rebound against the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox on Tuesday. The contest is set to start at 5 p.m.