Wednesday night was a long time coming for the Commodores (13-16-2).
Their bats finally caught fire in a 10-4 win over the Anglers (11-16-3).
“It feels great,” said hitting coach Beau McMillan, watching an all-around performance from his offense for the first time in a long time.
12 hits, four multi-hit efforts from the guys in his lineup and a .500 batting average with runners in scoring position.
“The key to winning a ball game is moving guys in scoring position and hitting behind [them],” he said. “When you see [the lineup] put it all together as complete as we did tonight, it's special and it's fun.”
In the early stages of the contest, Falmouth found itself fighting from underneath. After a two-run moonshot from Naulivou Lauaki Jr. (Georgia), the ‘Dores faced a multi-run deficit before having an opportunity to touch their bats.
But once they did, they struck back just as strong, starting with a line-drive leadoff single from Fabio Peralta (Miami).
“He's a professional already,” said McMillan of the all-star center fielder. “You can just kind of see the adjustment that he's made. He's getting on top of the baseball and smoking balls quite a bit as of recently. It's fun to see him, he's the one that gets us going. Offensively and defensively.”
Fabio’s hit was the start of a two-run rally, capped by RBI doubles from Tommy Harrison (Miami (OH)) and Carter White (Mississippi State). After Chatham drew level in the next half-inning, the ‘Dores began to create distance in the bottom of the third. A throwing error allowed Gavin Greger (Rutgers) to score from second base, White poked another low line drive back up the middle and Jeff Lougee (Northwestern) smashed a double to make it 6-3 Falmouth.
Lougee, who set the Cape on fire with Hyannis last season, is 3-for-9 in his first three games in a Commodore uniform and has already garnered high praise from his coaching staff. “ He's got a really good swing, he runs really, really well. He's been a really good addition to our team and our lineup, for sure,” said McMillan.
Notice how every RBI has come from a Commodore that joined the team after Opening Day? Well, that was the theme of Wednesday night’s game. Every RBI for Falmouth was accredited to a player who joined the team in the thick of the regular season.
“They're coming into conversations where they're hearing us say, ‘hey, guys, we need to move the ball with a guy in scoring position,’” McMillan said. “It takes some pressure off when you come in and you actually hit a ground ball back side and he gets through and you're not upset you didn’t hit a 110 mile-an-hour missile somewhere. Good baseball is played when you don't try to do too much and you just play the game, and I think it's giving us the sense of freedom, especially [in] our new guys.”
As Falmouth's batting average trends upward – now on the cusp of the upper half amongst all Cape League teams – strikeouts are starting to trend downward. The ‘Dores had 17 Ks against Brewster on Monday, but cut that down to six against Harwich the next day and seven against Chatham the day after. “We don't call each other out in a bad way, but we talk about personal at-bats and the situations that [guys] might have been in the night before so we can learn from it, and it looked like it's starting to happen a little bit,” said McMillan.
Greger’s performance on Wednesday is not to be overlooked either. Since returning to the roster earlier this month, the Scarlet Knight had been struggling to get off the starting blocks. His two base knocks against the Anglers might be the start to a hot streak for him.
“Man, take what they give you and you're going to start rolling.” The exact conversations he and McMillan have had over the past two weeks. “If we got him and Fabio going, it can be a lot of fun down the stretch…I wouldn't be surprised to see him get super hot here at the end because he's such a good ballplayer.”
Everything’s falling into place at the right time for the ‘Dores as they move into second place in the West Division, tied with Hyannis. They’ll look to pull ahead at Veteran’s Field on Thursday night in the back end of their home-and-home series against the Anglers. First pitch is set for 7:00 p.m.
