Cotuit, Mass. — Following a walk-off loss on Saturday night, Cotuit looked to get back on track when the Brewster Whitecaps entered Lowell Park.
Back-to-back slow games offensively seemed uncharacteristic for one of the top scoring teams in the CCBL, so many thought the Ketts would bounce back.
They scored early to set the tone, then surrendered nine unanswered runs as the bats were stifled again, plating just one runner and leaving seven on base. While it was competitive for the first six innings, Brewster ran away with it in the later innings, winning, 9-1, over the hometown Cotuit Kettleers.
“I think everybody goes through ruts like this [offensively]. We’ve been pretty good at manufacturing runs, but today got out of hand a little bit,” Cotuit manager Loren Hibbs said. “When you’re playing from that far behind, it makes things a bit challenging. We’ll keep working, try to make adjustments and give [the players] a good plan.”
After a quiet first inning, Case Sanderson (Nebraska) made some noise in the bottom of the second, scorching a leadoff triple into left field. Nolan Stevens (Oklahoma) plated him two batters later on a deep sacrifice fly to break the scoreless tie.
Brewster countered that with two base hits in the next half-inning to put runners on second and third. A wild pitch by Gavin Jones (Kent State) allowed the Whitecaps to tie things.
They tacked on another run in the top of the fourth with two runners on and Carson Tinney (Texas) at the dish. The stocky Longhorn roped a double down the left field line to give his team a 2-1 lead.
The ‘Caps had two runners in scoring position with no outs, so Jones’ day was done after a three-inning start. Michael Gray (Pittsburgh) took his place and gave up an RBI sac bunt but retired the side, limiting the damage.
The left-handed pitcher continued to mow down batters over the next two innings, giving up only one hit with a pair of punchouts.
In the seventh inning, Nick Greaney (transfer portal) relieved Gray after three innings of nearly perfect baseball. The portal arm immediately got into trouble, giving up two hits through his first three batters.
Maddox Mihalakis (Arizona) singled through the left side of the infield to score a run and bring Dalton Wentz (Wake Forest) to the plate. On a 2-1 count, the Demon Deacon mashed a no-doubt home run into the trees past the right field wall, making it a 7-1 ballgame.
Both offenses went quiet for a few innings until Brewster delivered the knockout punch in the top of the ninth. Collin Priest (Clemson) hit a two-run shot over the right-center field wall to extend their lead to 9-1.
The Ketts went down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the frame to notch their second straight loss, this time 9-1 to the Brewster Whitecaps.
Notes
Gray made his Kettleers debut and was solid, tossing three innings of shutout baseball with three strikeouts.
Since exploding for 11 runs on Thursday, Cotuit has scored just seven runs and left 19 men on base in three games.
Sanderson had another multihit game on Sunday. Over the last two weeks, the Cornhusker is batting .355.
Looking ahead
Cotuit has an off-day on Monday but will return to action on Tuesday against the Hyannis Harbor Hawks. First pitch from McKeon Park is at 6 p.m.
