The Hyannis Harbor Hawks' offense couldn’t find their footing against the Cotuit Kettleers in a 1-0 shutout loss at McKeon Park on Sunday night.
Although the team had six hits on the night, batters were unable to capitalize on scoring opportunities and left 11 runners stranded on bases.
“I thought we took some good swings all night, just didn’t get rewarded at some points, and just couldn’t get a hit when it really mattered.” Hyannis manager Mitch Karraker said.
While both team’s offenses struggled–with the Kettleers only coming away with three hits–the pitching staff from both sides were nearly lights out.
The Harbor Hawks pitching staff for the night consisted of Michael Meckna, Van Froling, Brayden Sharp and All-Star Cohen Gomez, who in total threw 15 strikeouts against the Kettleers. The Kettleers pitching staff struck out the Harbor Hawks 10 times, and both teams walked batters four times.
“It was good to have Van out there, he’s been scuffling a little bit. He was tremendous tonight,” Karraker said. “ Cohen, Sharp was really good, Meckna was even really, really good in his start. From top to bottom, they were excellent.”
Though the pitching staff were able to keep the Harbor Hawks in the game all night, one mishap would put the Kettleers on top.
In the top of the third with Meckna on the mound, Kettleers’ catcher Tyler Bellan walked to first, then got to second on a ground ball single by second baseman Noah Coy. A fly out by third baseman Aidan Aguayo moved Bellan to third, and first baseman Jake Hanley grounded into a forceout at second base to drive him home. With this, the Kettleers took their 1-0 lead and never gave it up for the remainder of the night.
With both teams’ pitching staffs having standout nights, neither teams’ offense could score from then on. The Harbor Hawks had five innings where runners were in scoring position with two outs, but the Kettleers pitching staff and defense were able to secure that last out all five times to close out the innings and keep the Harbor Hawks from getting on the board all night.
The Harbor Hawks have had a home run drought for several games now. Lead hitter for the team and All-Star Charlie Bates said that though a long ball helps, the team needs to focus more on hitting with runners in scoring position.
“I think that’s one of the hardest parts about baseball though, especially being a hitter at this level,” Bates said. “I think the key is just not riding that wave and just staying with who we are, and we’ll figure it out.”
Karraker said that although the team has been struggling offensively, he can tell that they are improving fundamentally.
“Offensively we’ve been struggling for a little while now, and so I thought tonight was a good step forward,” Karraker said. “I thought we took better swings, that we were on time a little bit more, a little bit tougher outs which is great. We just’ve got to continue to build on that, and hopefully that can translate into some more runs in the future.”
The Harbor Hawks look ahead to their matchup against the Falmouth Commodores–who they lost 9-1 to just a few days prior–in hopes to regain and build upon their offensive strength. The Harbor Hawks will travel to Guv Fuller Field in Falmouth on Tuesday. First pitch is set for 6 p.m.
