The Hyannis Harbor Hawks suffered a hard 3-2 loss to the Falmouth Commodores on Wednesday night. Similarly to the last time Falmouth (9-17) played Hyannis (15-10-1), it was another tight game. Each team was scoreless through the fifth, and the first run for the Hawks was registered in the eighth.
Kane Kepley walked in the top of the eighth to lead off the inning, stealing second before Eric Snow got hit by a pitch. With runners at first and second and one out, Falmouth brought in a new arm to face Mason White. With a wild pitch, Kepley marked the first run for the Hawks and Snow advanced to third. On a fielder’s choice ground ball by White, Snow made it home. The score was 3-2 Commodores to end the top of the inning, with nothing more coming in the ninth.
Oklahoma’s Grant Stevens is a fresh face to the Harbor Hawks. In his first appearance on the mound, he gave up three hits and had three strikeouts. He did not allow a Commodore to score during his time on the bump.
“It was my dream to play [on the Cape], so it’s cool to live it out,” Stevens said. “... I have a cutter that I’ve been working on, and just figuring out the command side of that, moving forward for the upcoming season.”
Coming in to relieve the Sooner was Kade Brown. In the sixth, he let up three hits, one of which was a home run, and a walk. While the game remained scoreless through the top of the sixth inning, the Commodores struck first. With runners on first and second, a double in the left-center gap by Trent Caraway scored them both. The next batter up hit a home run.
Despite the top of the eighth, the Hawks had very few base hits sprayed around the diamond. In the second, Cannon Peebles recorded the first hit for the Hawks. He was stranded as a base runner, previewing what happened for the following innings.
With one out in the seventh, Nick Groves was hit by a pitch, giving the Harbor Hawks a base runner. He stole second and advanced to third on a wild pitch, but was left on base.
In the fourth, Michael Dattalo singled on a liner to center. He was unable to advance as the batters following struck out.
“Offensively [the team] couldn’t get anything going,” Karraker said. “[Falmouth] pitched good, but I thought we got away a little bit from our approach and what we needed to do.”
LSU’s Chandler Dorsey came in to pitch for his first Cape League appearance in the seventh. He didn’t allow a hit and struck out one through his single inning on the mound.
“Dorsey has got some really good stuff. It was good to see him get his feet wet a little bit. We are really excited about [Dorsey and Stevens] moving forward,“ Karraker said.
In the fifth, Hyannis came close. There were two Hawks aboard with a leadoff walk by Peebles and a single by Groves. Despite Peebles being in scoring position, he did not touch home. Three outs were collected by Falmouth with two flyouts and a strikeout.
“Hitting is very individual… we’ll go back to work [Thursday] and try to fix that and make adjustments,” Karraker said.
The Hawks look to turn things around Thursday night in a makeup match against the Orleans Firebirds. The first pitch at Eldredge Park is set for 6:30 p.m.
