The midsummer woes continued for the Harwich Mariners on Thursday evening with their third loss to the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox this season, a 5-1 defeat at Red Wilson Field.
Trailing just 2-1 heading into the eighth inning, the Red Sox executed a 1-2-3 inning in the top half and set their sights on putting the game out of reach for Harwich before it got it's final chance at the plate.
RJ Austin kicked the inning off with a single, but after a quick first out from Sam Tookoian, he walked the next batter, Anthony Martinez. This brought up an ideal situation for Y-D with arguably its most dangerous hitter, Ethan Petry, coming to the plate with two on and just one out.
Petry took the first pitch high, and on the second pitch, Tookoian missed his spot up in the zone, the last place you want to miss against a power hitter like Petry.
And Petry did not pass up his chance to do some serious damage. He crushed a ball 396 feet over the left field fence for a no-doubter, a dagger of a home run that effectively ended the Mariners' hopes of a comeback.
The lone offense of the day for Harwich came from catcher Luke Heyman, who smoked his second home run of the season in the top of the fourth inning. Heyman got a heater down the middle on the third pitch of the at-bat and ripped a screaming line drive to dead center field that had just enough air under it to clear the fence.
Despite picking up the loss, starter Donovan Burke impressed in his second outing for the Mariners, going five full while striking out four batters.
Tookoian had the strikeout pitch working as well, sending five Red Sox back to the dugout by way of the K in his three innings of work.
The Mariners are back at home Friday night after going 1-2 on their three-game road trip. They'll take on Falmouth at Whitehouse Field with first pitch slated for 6:30 p.m.
