BOURNE, Mass. – In the 2024 West Division Finals, the Cotuit Kettleers’ season ended at the hands of the Bourne Braves. The three-game series ended at Lowell Park in a 5-3 Kettleer loss.
The Division Finals were a rematch in 2025, this time with Bourne having the home field advantage.
Heading into Sunday, Cotuit was 1-3 at Doran Park on the season (including playoffs). With Max Haug (George Washington) on the mound, the visitors hoped to rewrite the heartbreak of last season.
However, after a 12-inning battle, the Kettleers’ 2025 campaign came to an end with a 6-5 loss.
Cotuit came out of the gates strong. Luke Matthews (Kent State) and Caden Bogenpohl (Missouri State) worked back-to-back walks in the second inning. Zan Von Schlegell (St. Thomas) brought Matthews home with an RBI single to give Cotuit a 1-0 lead.
The scoring continued in the fourth. Matthews and Bogenpohl hit back-to-back singles, and Luke Lavin (Stanford) worked a walk to load the bases.
Cam Johnson (Oklahoma) brought Matthews and Bogenpohl home to give Cotuit a 3-0 lead.
Haug was brilliant on the mound and had a perfect game through 4 ⅓ innings. A walk to Ryker Waite (Vanderbilt) gave the Braves their first base runner, and the inning unraveled from there.
A single from Mark Quatrani (Cornell) put runners on first and second before a wild pitch advanced both runners. Back-to-back singles from Ryan Cooney (Oregon) and Jason Torres (Alabama) scored two runs, and Haug was pulled for Tim Tyler (Walters State CC).
Jon LeGrande (St. John’s) was the first batter Tyler saw. The outfielder doubled to left, bringing two runs home and giving the Braves a 4-3 lead.
The Kettleers wouldn’t go down without a fight. Jack Natili (Cincinnati) walked with the bases loaded to tie the game at four apiece in the seventh. With the bases still loaded, Nolan Stevens (Oklahoma) flew out deep to center field, bringing the go-ahead run in from third.
Kide Adetuyi (Florida Atlantic) was given the ball in relief of Jonathan Adelmann (Bucknell) in the eighth with a runner on first. A marvelous throw from Lavin from behind the plate caught the runner stealing, and Adetuyi retired the next two batters.
He returned to the mound for the bottom of the ninth. Singles from Waite and Cooney put two on with two outs.
Torres laced a single to left and scored Waite to tie the game at 5-5. Cooney was thrown out by Von Schlegell at third, ending the inning.
Neither team would back down without a fight. It wasn’t until the twelfth inning that either posed a true threat.
Cotuit had runners on second and third with no outs. It seemed they had finally gotten to the Bourne pitching staff. Will Whelan (Minnesota) had been pitching for five innings. He struck out Stevens, and Packy Bradley-Cooney (Alabama) relieved him.
Matthews quickly lined out to second, and Bogenpohl lost an 11-pitch battle and struck out on a foul tip to end the inning.
The Kettleers turned to Michael Gray (Pittsburgh) to keep the game going in the bottom of the twelfth.
On the first pitch Gray threw, LeGrande singled to left and advanced to second on a fielding error by Von Schlegell.
Once again, Kelly stepped up. He singled deep to left field and brought the speedy LeGrande home, ending the winner-takes-all thriller.
“There’s a lot of people involved with it,” Cotuit manager Loren Hibbs said. “You put guys out there and show faith in your guys that struggled early on, and that builds trust. When they leave, they leave the right way.”
