Finding success in the game of baseball is like building a Jenga tower: you use the pillars to build taller and taller, but chasing heights too much can eventually destroy the foundation you’ve built.
That’s what it's been for Falmouth (10-12-2) as it continues to lose its identity as one of the scrappiest teams on the Cape, and a shutout loss to Hyannis (11-14) showed the repercussions of doing so. In the words of head coach Jack Dahm, “we lost focus.”
It took one inning for the ‘Dores to put themselves behind. Two self-inflicted wounds was all the Harbor Hawks needed to prevail in the end.
With runners on first and second, Henry Zenor (South Carolina Upstate) laid down a bunt that ended up bringing both baserunners home after an errant throw soared into the Commodore bullpen.
“We didn't cover first base on the bunt…probably should have just held it,” said Dahm on the miscue.
Zenor wheeled himself around to third on the play and eventually scored on a groundout by Liam Barrett (UCSB) to give Hyannis an early three-run lead.
It would stay right there, however, as Adam Urban (Minnesota) was unfazed by the mishaps. He’d finish his five-inning start allowing a pair of hits while striking out five in a memorable performance for Dahm’s coaching staff.
“Heck, our pitchers were tremendous. They've been throwing the ball great the last few days,” he said. “He fell behind in his second inning, and then he started jumping ahead and mixing in his breaking ball and his changeup…he had some really good outings for us. I was real proud of the way he threw.”
Casen Murphy (Louisville) picked up right where Urban left off and tossed four nearly perfect innings against the Harbor Hawks, the only baserunner allowed coming on a walk in the seventh.
What worked for him was having a battery mate that knows the importance of getting ahead early in counts. Riley Jackson (Kentucky) spoke on that after Falmouth’s matchup against Brewster, and Murphy echoed his words.
“The past couple of outings, a big thing for me is first pitch strikes,” he said. “The difference between 0-1 and 1-0 is huge, so if you can get ahead 0-1, and then you can land everything else – I mean tonight, I had everything working – it makes it a lot easier.”
The Commodores would need an offensive spark in the back half of Tuesday’s contest to pull victory from the jaws of defeat. It seemed to be finding it in the bottom of the sixth with back-to-back singles from Brayden Jefferis (Michigan) and Carter White (Mississippi State), but a strikeout and a sharp line drive that turned into a double play took the air out of the Commodore dugout.
“We just didn't come up with that timely hit,” Coach Dahm said. “Three days ago, we had a bunch of two-out hits, and now the last two days, we haven't come up with that hit. We hit some balls hard today, but nothing was falling for us, unfortunately.”
The ‘Dores had one final opportunity in the ninth, getting the leadoff man on, but another double play marked the beginning of the end. One strikeout later, and Hyannis locked up the 3-0 win – a frustrating sight for a Falmouth squad trying to keep pace in a compressed top-3 in the West Division. After falling to the bottom of those three, Dahm emphasized the importance of having a positive attitude in a game that can cultivate negativity.
“We've got to try to stay positive, positive self-talk,” he said. “Some guys were getting frustrated when they came back to the dugout – a little more than I've seen throughout the year, so that's something that we talked about after the game…we just need to trust the process and stay positive.”
Wednesday provides a great opportunity for Falmouth to right its wrongs and continue its climb back to the top spot in the West. It takes on first-place Bourne on the road at 6:00 p.m.
