Tuesday, Aug. 12:
No. 1 Bourne Braves 19, No. 4 Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox 2 (BOU wins 2-0)
For the third time in the last four summers, the Bourne Braves are the Cape Cod Baseball League champions. They completed a sweep of the Y-D Red Sox in dominating fashion, winning, 19-2. The 19 runs are the most by a single team in the playoffs and tie the most in any game this summer.
Jon LeGrande (St. John’s) took home MVP honors for the 2025 Cape League playoffs, presented by Reader’s Hardwood Supply. In eight games, he posted a .444 batting average and a 1.213 OPS with five RBIs and four stolen bases.
Monday’s game was back-and-forth early on. Bourne took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first, but Y-D scored two in the bottom of the inning. The Braves came back and scored two in the second. From there, they never looked back.
Left-hander Folger Boaz (North Carolina) got the start for Bourne. He pitched six innings, allowing only four hits and one earned run while striking out six.
The Bourne offense tallied 18 hits, the most in a single game in the 2025 Cape League playoffs. Gavin Kelly (West Virginia) had three hits and drove in six runs in the game, two of which came on a home run. Braden Holcomb (Vanderbilt) recorded five hits, all of them singles.
The Braves were a relentless machine at the plate all game, getting traffic against the Y-D pitchers almost every inning. They scored three runs in the fourth, five in the fifth, four in the sixth and four in the eighth.
Scott Landers has been at the helm for Bourne the last four seasons, taking home the championship in 2022, 2023 and now 2025, with a runner-up finish last season.
The Braves finished atop the standings in the West Division with a regular-season record of 20-18-2. They spent most of the summer further down the board and only led the West for two days.
Bourne lost the first game of the playoffs at home to Hyannis but then turned on the afterburners. After that loss, Bourne went 6-1 in the playoffs, proving the Braves are truly born for August.
Monday, Aug. 11:
No. 1 Bourne Braves 5, No. 4 Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox 3 (BOU leads 1-0)
The Bourne Braves have dominated the month of August this decade. The 2025 season marks their fifth Championship Series appearance in a row, and they won back-to-back titles in 2022 and 2023. Y-D is looking for its first title since 2016. In Game 1 of the series at Doran Park, Bourne scored four in the fourth and held off a late Y-D comeback to get within one win of another title.
The Red Sox scored first in the top of the second inning. With two outs, Ryan Niedzwiedz (Southern Illinois-Edwardsville) singled and then scored on a Dean Carpentier (Southern California) RBI double. Bourne bounced right back and tied the game in the bottom of the inning. Cal Sefcik (Cincinatti) doubled to start the inning and scored on a wild pitch.
The big inning for Bourne came in the bottom of the fourth. BFC Whitehouse Outstanding Cape League Pitcher Tyler Pitzer (Mississippi State) got the start for the Red Sox. He retired the first two batters in the inning before issuing back-to-back walks. Jon LeGrande (St. John's) doubled home a run, and Kade Lewis (Wake Forest) plated two with a single. Gavin Kelly (West Virginia) injected electricity into the Doran Park crowd with a steal of home.
Y-D scored one run in the top of both the fifth and sixth innings to cut the deficit in half. Will Baker (Georgia Tech) and Connor Capece (Creighton) recorded RBI singles.
Right-hander Nate Whysong (Wake Forest) has been one of the best arms for Bourne in the playoffs. With the Braves' season on the line in the Division Series, he pitched 5 1/3 innings of shutout ball with eight strikeouts against Hyannis. On Monday, he pitched the last four innings for the Braves and earned the save. In the final three innings, he only allowed one hit.
Braden Holcomb (Vanderbilt) was the star for Bourne at the plate, going 3-for-4. LeGrande continued his torrid playoffs with two more hits.
The series shifts to Red Wilson Field on Tuesday for Game 2 at 4 p.m. The Braves will look to clinch the title, while Y-D must win to keep its hopes alive.
