Looking for a bounce-back game after a hard loss to the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox, the Hyannis Harbor Hawks opened the month of July with a 2-2 tie on the road Tuesday against the Harwich Mariners.
Moving to 8-4-2 with the tie, the Hawks built a two-run lead in the middle third of the game before Harwich struck back with one swing in the sixth inning. That tied the score, where it would remain through the 10th inning.
Hawks manager Mitch Karraker pointed out some of the positives to take away from the game while acknowledging there were chances to put the game away for a win.
“I thought we swung the bat really well,” Karraker said. “We had a lot of hard-hit outs, their shortstop made a couple nice plays over there that limited some damage. We had a situation, bases loaded one out, where we could not execute. In the 10th inning, we did not execute with a runner on third and one out.”
As they have done so many times this season, the Hawks jumped out to the lead first. Hayden Federico left zero doubt on a 397-foot home run that hit the top of the right-center-field scoreboard, with his second long ball of the summer giving Hyannis a 1-0 lead.
The Hawks doubled their lead in the top of the sixth when Matt Miura drove a single up the middle to score Jason Walk from third base. In the bottom of the inning, Tyler August left a pitch over the plate that Harwich right fielder Jake Koonin did not miss. With Tanner Marsh on base, Koonin put it over the left-field fence to tie things up at two.
The score remained tied through the final four innings, as the pitching staffs for both teams escaped jams throughout the night.
“Tip your hat, both sides pitched extremely well tonight,” Karraker said. “I was proud of the pitching staff. From pitch one all the way to the last pitch, I thought our guys did a really good job.”
Making his second start of the summer for Hyannis was Thomas Crabtree. After lasting 2 2/3 innings against the Falmouth Commodores, Crabtree gave the Hawks four scoreless innings, allowing one hit and two walks while racking up five strikeouts.
Crabtree liked the way his pitches were playing against the Harwich lineup all night.
“Felt good with the fastball getting ahead early,” Crabtree said. “I’ve been working on a cutter since I got here, and it has come along, and I got to use that tonight. My offspeed, I felt like it helped me out a lot, my changeup helped me out a lot getting early swings and misses, and late swings and misses.”
After Crabtree departed, August handled the next three innings out of the bullpen. He allowed the home run to Koonin, but nothing else as he struck out six Harwich hitters. Griffin Graves was the next man up, delivering two scoreless innings before Eddie Copper held off Harwich in the 10th to secure the tie.
Karraker has enjoyed watching the growth of the Hyannis pitching staff this summer, a unit that has consistently performed well.
“It is fun to see growth from outing to outing,” Karraker said. “That development piece is huge, and we’re going to need that down the stretch.”
One of the many highlights of the day for the Hawks pitching staff was Graves, the Auburn University lefty. Of the six outs he recorded, five came from strikeouts. It was a vast improvement from his first outing, where he allowed three runs in two innings.
Graves noticed from watching the game before he came in that his fastball could play well and lead to high strikeout numbers.
“I had noticed that they had been swinging and missing at a lot of fastballs,” Graves said. “I saw that was my best pitch, and I knew that I was going to have a lot of success out there with the strikeout numbers looking how they looked, that I could get the fastballs by them, and the outcome was what it was.”
After a loss and a tie on the road, the Hawks return to the friendly confines of McKeon Park for two straight home games. The next game is against the division rival Cotuit Kettleers, with first pitch set for 6 p.m. Wednesday.
