COTUIT, Mass.— Back in early June, before very little else was happening at Lowell Park, Cotuit Kettleers manager Mike Roberts was working with Nathan Hall (South Carolina), the only player in town.
Barely knowing each other, Roberts became familiar Hall through the language of baseball and swing mechanics. In a one-on-one session, the then-Clemson Tiger added a new swing to his repertoire while he was away from his college team in the midst of their run in the NCAA Tournament.
What Hall learned is what Roberts calls a “cheat swing”—when a player anticipates an inside pitch and aims to pull it hard enough to hook the ball inside the foul pole.
And once the Wareham Gatemen went to the bullpen in the fourth inning after Murf Gray (Fresno St.) bobbled the ball on a swinging bunt from Jarren Advincula (Cal) to extend the inning, it was the perfect time to call for it. Bringing in submariner Jacob Faulkner (Princeton), the entire Kettleers coaching staff had done enough scouting to know what to expect.
“[Roberts] walked up to me. He was like, ‘Nate, first pitch, submariners like to throw fastballs, so try out the cheat swing that we've been working on early on in the season,’” said Hall.
Hall listened, but Faulkner didn’t play into the trap set by Cotuit. Instead, the submariner went with a breaking ball for his first offering. Hall saw it well out Faulkner’s hand and recognized a hanger early. The Kettleers right fielder didn’t quite yank the pitch to the Lowell Park left field foul pole, instead driving the ball out and over the fence in left-center to provide the Cotuit a 4-0 lead en route to a 7-4 victory in Tuesday’s opening round contest.
“He was all for it, and he let her fly. It was a coach-player moment that you kind of cherish,” said Roberts.
Hall’s homer was the turning point early in a game full of playoff intensity from both dugouts. Wareham and Cotuit trotted out their two workhorses, who put on strong performances with short leashes in the win-or-go-home scenario for both teams.
The Gatemen appeared to take an early 1-0 lead when Nate Earley (Louisville) crushed a 2-0 fastball off Mikey Ebner (USC) over the fence in right, initially ruled a leadoff home run but was overturned after Cotuit’s dugout became irate and the umpires convened for a discussion.
The Kettleers Pitcher of the Year retired Earley after the at-bat continued and cruised through the rest of the inning, making for a big moment when Charles Davalan (Arkansas) crushed a legitimate homer off Tate McGuire (Arkansas) to give Cotuit a lead they never looked back from.
The Ketts started to tack on with that fourth-inning bomb from Hall, set up by two-out hits from Matt Klein (Louisville) and Advincula. Cotuit added to its lead in the next frame, with the first two batters drawing walks before Tanner Thach (UNC Wilmington) won a left-on-left matchup against Hudson Lee (Clemson) to put the Kettleers up 5-0.
By the inning’s end, the Ketts were up seven thanks to a Klein RBI groundout and another Advincula infield single to plate Thach. With the sizeable cushion, Roberts was able to put more trust in his pitching staff.
Ebner only lasted 3 1/3 innings and 48 pitches, despite facing the minimum the first time through the Wareham order and allowing two baserunners. Ebner utilized an increased usage of his changeup with assistant coach Danny Crossen calling the shots for the first time this season, pitching to contact for success in his second start on the Cape.
“The coaches did a bunch of scouting on their guys and we trusted what they had, and it worked well for us,” said Ebner. “They were calling all the pitches, and I really liked the way it was going.”
Even still, Roberts took the ball from Ebner after a one-out walk in a one-run game at the time, giving it to Taylor Seay (Texas St.) who needed just six pitches to get out of the fourth.
In the fifth, there was a lane for southpaw Beau Sampson (Oklahoma) to face a majority of left-handed batters. Working around a leadoff single, Sampson left the fifth unscathed, allowing Roberts to entrust him for five more outs. In his longest outing with the Cotuit in just his third appearance with the club, Sampson went 2 2/3 innings and earned the win, allowing one earned run on five hits.
“There’s always nerves for games like this, it’s a win-or-go-home,” said Sampson. “I just took a deep breath before I came out and I just trusted my stuff and my teammates. Certainly went well.”
Still possessing a large margin for error, Roberts went with another left-hander to close out the win in Max Martzolf (Florida Atlantic). Wareham was able to rough up the fourth and final pitcher Cotuit used a bit, notching three earned runs over the final seven outs of the game on a two-RBI double by Gray and a solo home run from Antonio Jimenez (UCF) to bring the Gatemen within three runs.
Even with putting the tying run in the hole, Martzolf induced a flyout from Jacob Jarrell (Clemson) to punch Cotuit’s ticket to the second round.
The Bourne Braves upset the top-seeded Hyannis Harbor Hawks in the other West Division opening round bout, setting up a rematch with Cotuit from the 2023 first round as the two-time defending CCBL champions swept the Ketts in two games.
The Kettleers will host Game 1 of a best-of-three series at Lowell Park at 4 p.m. on Wednesday.
Photo by Holden McBerty (Memphis).
