After a scorching hot start to the season, the past three games for the Commodores (4-3-1) were deflating.
Sunday evening was anything but.
Against the Wareham Gatemen (2-6), the Commodores showed the grit and determination that head coach Jack Dahm envisioned from his hand-selected guys. Down three in the ninth and two in the 10th, Falmouth found a way to win.
“We don't quit, we're always in the game, no matter what the score is.”
Words from the Father’s Day hero, Dallas Brooks (UCF), who walked off the come-from-behind victory for the Commodores.
Nate Stern (TCU) got the start in his second appearance of the season and built off his four innings of no-hit ball at Brewster with another stellar outing against Wareham. After surrendering a leadoff single, the rising junior retired the next three batters in order, striking out the latter two and stranding a runner on second. He’d only allow two more hits in his 3.2 innings of work in which he punched out seven.
The Commodore offense started “en fuego”, as an Austin Mallee (Mount Mercy) base hit sparked a loud first inning for Falmouth. A Jimmy Nugent (Louisville) walk, followed by a Riley Jackson (Kentucky) single loaded the bases for Ty Kaunas (Texas Tech), who launched a grand slam over the left field wall to surge the ‘Dores ahead in the bottom of the first.
Kaunas was sitting dead-red fastball, and he got his wish, saying “I'm in a plus plus count, three-one situation, and all I [was] looking for was a fastball. I was honestly ready for a fastball on the outer half, but I got one middle-in and took it over the fence.”
It took the Commodores no time for the top of the order to pile on top of the early lead. Mallee poked his second consecutive hit into the outfield and wheeled himself around the bases on a Fabio Peralta (Miami) double into the right-center gap to make it 5-0 ‘Dores.
The Gatemen started their climb back into the contest in the top of the fourth with a pair of walks and an RBI single from Linkin Garcia (Texas Tech) that got them in the scoring column for the first time. Jake Michalak (Ohio State) did his best to limit the damage in relief of Stern, but a walk and a bases-clearing double from Jason Wachs (Tulane) brought Wareham within one.
A 1-2-3 inning added to the Gatemen’s momentum – momentum that propelled them ahead in front during a three-run fifth inning. Two free passes and a base knock put all three ducks on the pond, from which two fielder’s choices and a wild pitch gave Wareham a 7-5 lead.
The Gatemen advantage became three in the top of the eighth – a nearly identical inning to the Commodore half of the second. A Wachs single, then a Levi Clark (Tennessee) double scored the eighth run of the game for Wareham.
Meanwhile, the Wareham pitching staff continue to hold off the Commodores. Caden McDonald (Florida) and Ty Starke (Louisville) combined for 5.2 scoreless innings spanning across the middle innings, shutting down the ‘Dores for the majority of the contest.
“It's just part of the game,” said Kaunas, a reference the struggling Falmouth bats as the froze over during the Wareham rally.
Then came the bottom of the ninth.
A Brooks single was the spark that Falmouth needed to make the improbable a reality. Mallee gave the Wareham infield trouble with a sharply hit ground ball, moving Brooks to third. The first wild pitch of the inning brought him in before a double from Nugent brought the ‘Dores within one.
This was where Kaunas and the ‘Dores started to feel the game shift their way.
“We knew we had a chance, there was nobody out. In that situation we knew that we were going to do big things.”
Jackson did his part, sacrificing an out to move the tying run to third.
With Falmouth down to its final out, yet another pitch evaded the mitt of Drew Rogers (Georgia Tech), allowing pinch runner Nick Venteicher (Creighton) to cross home plate and tie the contest at eight apiece.
Suddenly, a contest that was all Falmouth in the beginning before slowly falling into the grips of the Gatemen seemed destined to end in victory for the Commodores. However, R.J. Hamilton (Duke) and Wareham weren’t ready to accept what appeared to be inevitable at the time.
The Gatemen shortstop laced a one-out base hit to break the tie in the top of the 10th, later scoring to give Wareham a two-run cushion.
At a passing glance, the two runs from the Gatemen seemed to be decisive. Yet, Falmouth still had one more knockout blow left to deliver.
With Ben Slanker (Louisville) on second, Kaunas drew a leadoff walk to crank the offensive engine one final time. After Pearson Riebock (Baylor) reached on an error to load the bases, Carl Scmidt (Cal) walked to reduce the lead to one.
That brought Brooks back up to the dish, and in his Commodore debut, he provided them their biggest swing of the season: a chopper over the head of Clark, into right field, scoring the game-winning runs in the 11-10 win for Falmouth, catapulting them into first place of the West Division.
In Kaunas’ words, the victory “just [shows] our grit” as the squad continued to battle through the moments that defeat felt imminent and victory felt unattainable to get to such a monumental moment. The legendary comeback snapped a three-game winless streak and put a beautiful bow on a turbulent slate of games for the Commodores across the past five days.
