Heading into Wednesday, Falmouth had only won one game after its stellar 3-1 start to its season.
That number became two at night’s end – a night which saw the ‘Dores (5-4-1) get hot offensively.
How?
Hitting coach Beau McMillan says “having at-bats, moving the ball when guys are in scoring position, executing on our bunts and our hidden runs…We battled tonight.”
Ryan Castillo (New Mexico) toed the slab on a windy Wednesday night and pieced together a strong four-inning start for the Commodores in a pitchers’ duel against Anglers’ starter Jack Ohman (Yale). After allowing the first three batters of the game to reach base, Castillo bore down, retiring the middle third of Chatham’s lineup in order to limit the damage to a single run on a Cooper Neville (Alabama) sacrifice fly.
Castillo moved swiftly through his next three innings unscathed, allowing only two more hits while punching out four to keep the score at 1-0. He’d finish his outing by stranding a runner on second after giving up a one-out double to Korbin Reynolds (Vanderbilt).
On the flip side, Ohman’s four innings were nothing short of stellar, striking out eight of the 17 Commodore batters he’d face. Two singles in the bottom of the third seemed to have Falmouth in business, but with two outs, Ohman got the better of Riley Jackson (Kentucky) to escape the jam.
“[Ohman’s] got location everywhere with the fastball,” said McMillan after the game, with high praise for the Bulldog arm. He’s got the breaking ball, he's got the slider, he's got the changeup. He's just got a number of options that he can really go to work on with you.”
However, in the sport of baseball, there’s always a game within the game itself. For the Falmouth offense, that was finding ways to spike Ohman’s pitch count to force him out of the game.
The ‘Dores put the pressure on him again in the bottom of the fifth with some scrappy small-ball – playing right into their identity. After Anthony Diaz (formerly New Mexico, in transfer portal) worked a leadoff walk, Nick Venteicher (Creighton) laid down a perfectly placed bunt to the right of the pitcher’s mound and beat the throw to first base for an infield hit. Chatham head coach Dennis Cook emerged from the dugout thereafter, signaling the end of Ohman’s day.
After Dallas Brooks (UCF) moved both runners with a sac bunt of his own, Austin Mallee (formerly Gateway CC, in transfer portal) dunked his team-leading 10th base hit into left field, plating both baserunners and pulling Falmouth ahead.
This brand of baseball is, according to McMillan, something for Commodore fans to expect all season long, adding that “when you execute and it goes your way, it just fires things up and it makes everything a lot easier.”
The Anglers leveled the score in the next half inning. Neville worked a free pass, stole second during the following at-bat and advanced to third on a throwing error. Cole Johnson (Georgia) scored Neville on a sac fly to center.
With two outs, Reynolds got plunked, Tyler Lichtenberger (Clemson) was walked and Kaiden Dossa (Yale) singled to load the bases for the top of the Anglers’ leadoff man in Rob Rispoli (UConn). Despite all signs pointing toward a Chatham lead, reliever Casen Murphy (Louisville) held down the fort for the ‘Dores and induced a flyout to freeze the rally.
Falmouth started to create distance in the bottom of the sixth, as Brooks laced a line drive into the left-center gap, past a diving Dossa and into the fence, scoring Venteicher from first and Carl Schmidt (Cal) from second, making it a 4-2 ballgame.
Coach McMillan has been quite impressed by Brooks in his first two games as a Commodore. “He just stays inside the baseball and makes it tough for guys to beat him,” he said of his newest addition.
Murphy kept the ‘Dores ahead by staying cool under pressure. With two outs and a runner on first, a high chopper off the bat of Harlin Horvater (Mississippi State) sailed over the head of Jackson and down the first base line, putting runners on the corners. He jammed the very next hitter immediately after, firing an inside fastball off the handle of Johnson’s bat and getting a popout to short to wiggle out of another jam in the seventh.
After smooth sailing for Sachem Ramos (UCF) in the eighth, Chatham scratched across a run in the ninth and moved the tying run just 90 feet from home plate with two outs. That didn’t matter for J’Shawn Unger (Nebraska), who handled a sharp comebacker to end the game and lock down the one-run Commodore win.
Growth and development is the primary goal of summer baseball, but for Falmouth, winning is an exceptional priority the entire squad deeply values. When giving insight to this team mindset, Mallee said “we need to do the small things to win ball games. It's obviously summer ball, and we're here to have fun and play good baseball, but we want to win games too.”
Still tied for first in the West Division, the ‘Dores take tomorrow off before picking up on Friday, June 26, against Wareham at 6:00 p.m.
