On their best stretch of the season, Falmouth (17-18-2) continues to find spark after spark from its newest of faces.
Friday night, it was Nick Croce (LSU New Orleans) who provided that spark that charged the ‘Dores in their sixth win in their last eight contests, going 3-for-4 with the eventual game-winning RBI to lift the squad to a two-run win over Cotuit (11-24-2).
A true full-circle moment for Croce.
“I had like an Area Code tryout back in 2023, and it was actually on this field,” said Croce. “Then I came and watched a game and it was pretty inspiring.”
Three years ago, Croce wanted the opportunity to play in a league in front of scouts in hopes of making the jump to the highest of heights in college baseball. Although delayed, he got his wish with the Commodores on a breezy Cape Cod summer night, and made the absolute most of it.
“It's pretty cool, it's unreal” for Croce, who transported himself back to his high school years while processing the magnitude of his debut.
Before the crescendo of the story, Christian Aiello (Jacksonville State) wrote the first few pages with four scoreless in yet another strong start in his stellar Cape League campaign. But the start of the fifth brought him trouble.
Cotuit, who’d been fighting for its postseason life all week long, finally cracked the code on how to get to Aiello. Through the first 9.1 innings they’ve seen from him – dating back to their last encounter on July 17 – they failed to find any sort of offense. An infield single from Tyler Bellan (Wheaton) changed that sentiment, scoring JJ Moran (Stanford) to make it 1-0 Kettleers, and they’d double that score after an Aiden Aguayo (UCLA) sacrifice fly.
One swing of the bat from A.J. Putty (Illinois) cut the deficit in half for Falmouth. His first homer and second extra-base hit of the season broke an 0-for-9 spell for him across his last four appearances up to that point.
An immediate response was to come from Cotuit, specifically, from the barrel of Jesse Di Maggio (Dallas Baptist). He’d hit a bomb to straightaway center field – the first occurrence at Guv Fuller Field – to put the Ketts’ back up two in the top of the sixth.
That was the last time Cotuit led.
A four-run inning ensued for the ‘Dores shortly after, starting with a Brayden Jefferis (Michigan) RBI single. Carter White (Mississippi State) tied it up with a run-scoring double, Croce’s base hit gave Falmouth the lead and for good measure, Mark Gialluisi (Villanova) took advantage of a throwing error to pad the lead.
The Commodores’ uprising was found in their resilience and will to win, making Falmouth a phenomenal fit for Croce. “I'm a winner and I love to compete and I hate to lose,” he said. “There's a lot of big talent here and I think if you don't have that winner mentality, then you're not going to be in this league [for long] because this league weeds out the weak.”
The bullpen finished the job to lock down the win, as Cal Travers (Longwood), Ben Reimers (Stanford) and J.R. Struk (Gardner-Webb) all posted zeros to complete the 5-3 victory.
Struk left The Guv with his second save of the season and made an impressive first impression on Croce, who had words of praise for Falmouth’s closer. “It's my first time seeing him pitch, so it was great. He shut the door. He didn't let the guys on base affect him, and he went in and did his thing.”
Morale of the story for Croce: self-confidence is everything.
“Everyone's the same on the field when they step between the lines,” he said. “Coming from JUCO and playing all these kids from Power Four schools, [there’s] not really a difference if you believe in yourself.”
After a pair of wins, the ‘Dores will play a pair of games on Saturday, starting at 1:00 p.m. on the road in Hyannis before returning home for a 6:30 p.m. matchup against Wareham. Both games will be available on Cape League TV.
