FALMOUTH, Mass. — Luke Gaffney slid into second base, rubbed off some dirt and pointed toward the Falmouth faithful. Just seconds ago, the Commodores (4-10) slugger trusted his hands and connected with a fastball sending it to the left field warning track. This rip drove in two important runs on Tuesday night — two runs that helped defeat the Harbor Hawks.
Hyannis (8-5-1) dropped its game on Tuesday. The Falmouth Commodores ended the club's modest three-game winning streak by a score of 8-3 at Guv Fuller Field.
"[Falmouth] had that big seventh inning," head coach Mitch Karraker said. "In that inning especially, we made some self-induced mistakes, so it's unfortunate because we were winning most of the game. That's baseball, we need to flush this and get on to the next one."
Left-on-left crime was present early and often for the Harbor Hawks. As usual, Hyannis scratched the game's first run across, thanks to a hard-hit leadoff double from Kane Kepley (Liberty). Fellow lefty stick Dalton Bargo (Tennessee) provided the clutch two-out RBI in his first at-bat of the summer. The newly minted national champion found grass past the Falmouth shortstop as the bats got to Falmouth starter Hayden Frank immediately in the top of the first.
Hyannis added another run in the top of the third, once again it was Kepley starting the noise with a base hit.
The speed threat swiped his 10th bag of the season and was moved to third from a Jon Jon Gazdar (Austin Peay) ground ball. Michael Dattalo (Dallas Baptist) got the job done for Karraker’s club, he fought with two strikes and pushed a ball past the pitcher, scoring the Hawks’ leadoff man.
A struggling Falmouth squad who lost via a run-rule to Hyannis back on Opening Day seemed to thrive off their division rival's early lead.
Andres Galan (California) was thrown directly into the fire in the bottom of the third. Karraker turned the ball to Ryan Dromboski (Penn) to start Tuesday’s game, and the Ivy Leaguer battled hard, but only lasted 2 2/3 innings. He surrendered one run and left with the bases loaded for Galan to clean up. The right-handed arm came in huge for Hyannis, striking out Falmouth’s touted Gavin Turley. A fired-up Dromboski was the first to greet him beyond the foul line.
"[Karraker] trusted me with a big spot, and I really wanted to help out [Dromboski]," Galan said. "I had come in with the bases loaded, and it was important for me to pick my guy up. Coming into a spot like that, nothing changes. You have to be aggressive, no fear."
Falmouth chipped away numerous times, one being when Galan surrendered three straight base hits to start the bottom of the fifth. Gavin Kilen roped a single that knocked in Isaiah Barkett. Galan strung together two great strikeouts against Turley and Gaffney — the Commodores’ two most dangerous bats. Despite the pressure rising, the Golden Bear was effective, limiting the damage to just one run.
Galan provided exactly what the Harbor Hawks needed out of the bullpen at Guv Fuller Field. He exited with an impressive line of 3 1/3 innings, three hits and one run while striking out four on Tuesday.
"I thought [Galan] was excellent out of the pen," Karraker said. "He had a couple of his pitches working early and challenged hitters from the jump."
The bullpen couldn't hold the Harbor Hawks' lead late. A combination of some timely hits and free passes led to a seventh inning where things spiraled out of control, ending in six Commodore runs. Hyannis pitchers walked seven and hit two on Tuesday, the Falmouth staff walked just one.
"Yeah, honestly, I thought we just had one bad inning," Galan said. "I think if we were able to limit that damage, we win this game with no problem. We just have to eliminate everything, go be tough, and find a way to win [Wednesday]."
Despite outhitting the Commodores 11-9, Hyannis couldn’t make this close after the crooked number in the seventh.
The Harbor Hawks will travel to Red Wilson Field on Wednesday to take on the 10-4 Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox. First pitch is scheduled for 5 p.m.
Sam Fosberg can be reached at samfozsports@gmail.com and followed on Twitter/X @discussbaseball
