Just get in.
That’s all Harwich Mariners head coach Steve Englert has had his mind on for the last few weeks. After a July to forget, the Mariners caught fire in the last two weeks of the season, playing their best baseball of the summer at a most opportune time.
And they carried that fire right into the playoffs, winning a thrilling game in the first round of the playoffs over the Chatham Anglers, 7-5.
Harwich trailed 5-4 heading into the top of the ninth, but as has been in the Mariners' DNA lately, the clutch gene began to poke out with the game on the line.
Harwich couldn’t have asked for a better guy to lead off the ninth, the team MVP and league All-Star, Cam Maldonado (Northeastern). Already 2-for-3 on the day, Maldonado scorched a line drive down the right field line that dropped fair no more than a foot inside of the foul line. The ball rolled all the way down behind the Harwich bullpen mound, allowing Maldonado to cruise into third with a stand-up triple.
Now the line moved to Aiden Robbins (Seton Hall), a spark plug in the Mariners lineup. Robbins jumped on a 2-2 fastball and smoked it past the second baseman to drive in Maldonado and tie the game.
Harwich wasn’t done yet though. After Chatham picked up the first two outs of the inning, it looked like it had a chance to get out of the inning with limited damage. But a walk from Matt Scannell (Wake Forest) moved the order to Wilson Weber (Oregon State), one of the hottest hitters in the Harwich lineup in the last two weeks.
Weber stroked the second pitch of his at-bat to right field, a sinking line drive that Chatham right fielder Ashton Larson made a diving attempt on but was unable to come up with, allowing the speedy Robbins to score from second and retake the lead for his team.
To add some insurance, Danny Dickinson (LSU) drove in Scannell two batters later with his biggest hit of the season, making the score 7-5 heading to the bottom of the ninth.
Kevin Zarnoch (UMass Lowell), who had come in to relieve Danny Macchiarola (Holy Cross) in the eighth, stayed on the bump for the ninth. Zarnoch has taken control of the closer role for the Mariners in the final stretch of the season, and he proved why Tuesday night. He absolutely diced all three batters Chatham sent to the plate in the bottom of the ninth, striking out the first two before inducing a pop-up to shallow right field to end the game.
“That was a dogfight the whole game, back and forth, Ali-Frazier,” a fired up Englert said. “I can’t say enough good things about this team, they’re just so resilient, they play hard, just grinders, absolute grinders. So proud of them.”
Wilson Weber tied the game at 4 in the eighth inning with an RBI base hit, a hit that looked like a sure turning point in the game in favor of Harwich. The Anglers escaped the jam just allowing one run, however, and were able to scratch a run across in the bottom of the eighth to put pressure on Harwich heading into the ninth.
Three Mariners had exceptional offensive performances Tuesday night: Weber with his two clutch hits in the eighth and ninth innings; Cade Kurland (Florida), who had two RBI early in the game; and, of course, Maldonado, who scored three of the Mariners' seven runs and got their rally going in the ninth.
“[Maldonado] is a stud, he’s really come into his own, he’s turned into an alpha male this summer,” Englert said. “He’s got a big future ahead of him, he’s just been a spark plug for us and he’s come up with some huge hits.”
Next on the slate for the Mariners is the East Division Finals, a three-game series with the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox, who finished the regular season at the top of the East Division standings. Harwich went 1-4 against the Red Sox in the regular season and will be the underdog heading into the series.
First pitch at Red Wilson Field on Wednesday afternoon is scheduled for 4 p.m.
