The Hyannis Harbor Hawks defeated the Chatham Anglers in convincing fashion with a 6-0 win Friday night. A combination of production offensively and on the mound led to Hyannis (16-11-1) bouncing back after two tough losses to defeat Chatham (15-13).
Just two weeks prior to Friday night’s game, Anthony Silva (TCU) dealt with a hitting slump to start his summer on Cape. Since then, the Horned Frog has been on a tear, continuing his success Friday against the Anglers.
Mason White (Arizona) reached on an infield single with two outs in the bottom of the second, bringing Silva to the dish with a runner on. The righty turned on a ball, smashing it down the left field line and into the bushes over the wall with a little bat flip while jogging down to first for good measure. The two-run homer was Silva’s second deep fly of the season.
“I was just trying to be on time for the fastball,” Silva said. “[The pitcher] had a pretty good slider or split or something like that, and I was trying to hit the fastball for sure. I kept fouling off pitches, and made an adjustment to stay inside the ball on the inside fastball, and was lucky enough to get it on the barrel.”
The bottom of the fourth brought more offense for the Harbor Hawks, adding to their two-run lead. Silva tallied his third RBI of the night, smacking a line drive into left field to score Dalton Bargo (Tennessee) from third with two outs.
More runs were scored in the fourth, with the inning beginning with the bases loaded before Chatham recorded an out. A double play for the Anglers got them the first two outs, but also scored a run for Hyannis.
“We had pressure on [Chatham] the entire game,” Aaron Savary (Iowa) said. “We had nine hits, and I can’t imagine we had any less than five walks. We were just on base constantly, and that was just big for scoring runs for us.”
After Silva advanced to second from a Jaxson West (Florida State) walk, Carson Boles (Arkansas) strolled into the box looking to drive someone in. Silva and West took off on the third pitch of the at-bat, and a well-placed ball past the Chatham first baseman snuck its way into the outfield, allowing Silva to score off a perfectly executed hit-and-run.
To add salt to the wound for the Anglers, a pickoff attempt to first base got away from the first baseman, bringing West in to score the sixth run of the night for the Harbor Hawks.
Hyannis held onto its lead successfully through the rest of the game, in large part due to one of the best pitching performances of the summer to this point. Savary got the start on the mound for the blue and orange, and despite a shaky first inning, settled in to come away with a five-inning performance where he allowed no runs, just one hit, four walks and struck out four batters.
“I just know [Chatham’s] a super big home run-hitting team, so I was just trying to keep the ball on the ground,” Savary said. “I felt like I produced a lot of groundball outs, a couple of double plays I think. I kept the ball low in the zone to minimize opportunities for them to launch one out.”
Sean Fitzpatrick (Arizona State) came in to relieve Savary in the sixth inning, coming off a win in his previous outing on Tuesday, July 16. He continued where he left off, having another great performance on the bump with three scoreless innings pitched, allowing two hits and striking out three batters.
Then it was time for Josh Och (Southern Miss.) to shut the door in the ninth. The righthander struck out the side in his one inning of work, holding on to his 0.00 ERA through his first four appearances.
The Harbor Hawks look to continue the momentum getting another game at home 24 hours later. The Harwich Mariners will be in town for a first pitch scheduled at 6 p.m. from McKeon Park.
“One of our most complete games we played on both sides of the ball,” Karraker said. “Offensively, our bats were really good throughout the entire game. The pitching staff obviously was spectacular.”
Mike Maynard can be reached at mikemay62@gmail.com and followed on Twitter/X @mikecmaynard.
