The Harwich Mariners put themselves in the driver’s seat in the Cape Cod Baseball League Championship Series on Saturday night, picking up a commanding 7-3 victory in Game 1 against the Bourne Braves. A well-balanced offensive attack paired with efficient pitching put the Mariners just one win away from their first CCBL championship since 2011.
It’s tough to quantify one singular piece as the reason the Mariners have gone on such a dominant run throughout the playoffs, and that’s because from top to bottom in the lineup, guys are contributing night in and night out.
Harwich perfectly exemplified this in the fifth inning, when it scored five runs to extend its lead to 6-0 and squash any realistic hope of a comeback for Bourne.
Jake Ogden (Miami) singled to start the inning, and after Cam Maldonado (Northeastern) struck out, Aiden Robbins (Seton Hall) and Aden Hill (Maryland) hit back-to-back singles, the latter of which drove in Ogden for the first run of the frame.
Wilson Weber (Oregon State) walked to follow up the RBI knock from Hill, loading the bases for Cade Kurland (Florida).
Instead of looking to do a huge amount of damage with one swing, Kurland kept his approach simple, tagging the Mariners' fourth single of the inning to left field, while the rest of the runners played station to station.
Now with two runs home in the inning and the bases still loaded, Matt Scannell (Wake Forest) kept the “death by singles” approach going, knocking in two runs with his first hit of the game.
Danny Dickinson (LSU) drove in the final run of the inning with a squeeze bunt that scored Kurland from third.
“That was so big, we got our knocks when we needed them with runners in scoring position,” Harwich manager Steve Englert said of the offensive onslaught in the fifth inning. “Everybody is contributing, everybody gets up there and does their job and has a part in this.”
Hill, Robbins and Weber have undoubtedly been spark plugs in the Harwich lineup since they arrived in late July, and they proved once again how valuable they are on Saturday night, going a combined 5-for-12 with four runs scored between them.
“[Hill and Robbins] have come in and really given us a spark, and [Weber], another late addition,” Englert said. “Those three guys have really, really boosted us down the stretch here. They’re great kids and they play just the way we want them to play.”
The Bourne lineup tallied 13 hits on Saturday night, but Harwich pitchers Olin Johnson (North Carolina) and Blake Morningstar (Wake Forest) did a good job of containing any damage with runners in scoring position, stranding 11 Braves on the night.
“Our pitching was tremendous tonight,” Englert said. “[Johnson and Morningstar] did a great job all night of keeping them at bay, because 1-9 that's a tough team, tough outs to get.”
Englert knows that in spite of the dominant win, he needs to keep his team focused on taking things one day at a time, even when the ultimate prize is just one win away.
“Not done yet, they’re dangerous over there. We’ve got work to do, so you can’t get too excited, need to finish it,” Englert said. “Don’t lay off the gas, just got to keep going, keep playing, keep doing our thing and not let up.”
Harwich has a chance to etch itself into the CCBL history books Sunday at 5:30 p.m. back at Whitehouse Field for Game 2.
