Friday night brought some chaos to The Guv.

Falmouth (7-9-1) and Cotuit (5-10-2) met for their annual Fourth of July series and began setting off fireworks a night early.

25 runs on 25 hits in the first meeting between the squads, but in the end, the Commodores staved off the Kettleers in a tug-of-war affair.

From the start, this contest was a whirlwind. 20 combined runs between both teams in the first two innings.

The explosion started with a mild two run home run from Landon Beaver (UAB) in the top of the first to put the Kettleers ahead. The ‘Dores quickly flipped the lead in the bottom half of the inning, starting with a leadoff double from Fabio Peralta (Miami). Two sacrifice flies, an RBI single, a walk and a wild pitch gave Falmouth a five-run frame.

But the contest seemed like it was put away by Cotuit in the second. The Kettleers strung together eight runs in an inning that seemed like it would never end. A wild pitch started it all before a pair of doubles from Will Plattner (Alabama) and Hunter Warren (NC State) handed Cotuit the lead. Beaver padded the Kettleers’ advantage to two with a single, and Brady Christman (Mississippi State) doubled it with a two-run bomb over the right field wall. At the end of the top of the second, it was 10-5 Cotuit.

Falmouth’s response? Copy and paste inning no. 1, and that’s your answer. After two walks and an error loaded the bases, Ty Kaunas (Texas Tech) cleared them with a triple past the outstretched reach of Beaver in right field.

Slanker followed up with a homer, tying the ball game at 10.

“We didn't stop fighting and got big time hits in big situations,” said Kaunas, who finished with a season-high four hits. “It built momentum, back to back to back hits and getting baserunners on.”

Part of that momentum was built off pure confidence, according to Slanker. “It's the belief in all of our hitters,” he said.
”Confidence is a very important thing in the game of baseball.”

Slanker radiated that exact confidence, and it helped him to a three-hit, four RBI day.

Both teams threatened in the innings to follow, but neither scratched a run across until the Kettelers found a run in the fifth after a couple singles and a 4-3 run-scoring groundout from Jake Hanley (Georgia). Ryder Woodson (Mississippi State) erased the deficit with a game-tying homer to start a decisive sixth inning rally. A trio of singles from Dallas Brooks (UCF), Kaunas and Slanker gave them the lead, and Riley Jackson’s (Kentucky) two-bagger pushed the score to 14-11.

From there, the ‘Dores defense and arms carried them to a much-needed victory.

“We just had to play defense,” said Kaunas. “[Cohen Nelson (Nebraska)] showed up, he did an awesome job finishing off the last couple of innings and that's what really helped seal it.”

Besides the offense, Nelson was the biggest key in the Friday win, pitching five scoreless innings down the stretch.

Overall, it was a day that Slanker and company felt proud about and one that they feel they can build upon, as he said “this is definitely a very important step in the right direction, especially against a good team like Cotuit....[tomorrow] it's just that same approach: try to get out to early leads, score runs [and] make our pitchers feel comfortable as possible.”

Kaunas thinks another caveat to succeeding in that is just doing the job. “You're gonna get up with that bats and every single different situation, and you just got to get the job done,” he said.

Falmouth, now back in first place of the West Division, will look to replicate its performance on America’s 250th birthday on Saturday against their bordering rivals. First pitch is set for 4:35 p.m.