HARWICH, Mass. – The Falmouth Commodores and the Harwich Mariners pitchers went head-to-head in the matchup at Whitehouse Field on Friday.
The Mariners sealed the winning deal for themselves when Jake Ogden (UNC Greensboro) singled on a ground ball sending Ryan Weingartner (St. Joseph's) running home to make it 4-0.
“We’ve been playing good baseball,” Commodores starting pitcher Jack Seppings (Brown) said. “It’s just a matter of time before we get going.”
Harwich took the upper hand in the bottom of the first with two runs when Falmouth catcher Karson Bowen (TCU) dropped the ball and committed a throwing error.
Mariners starting pitcher Haiden Leffew (Wake Forrest) stumped the Commodores for the five-and-a-half innings he was on the mound. Leffew picked up eight strikeouts and allowed one walk and two hits.
Colton Shaw (Yale) relieved Leffew in the top of the sixth. Shaw put up one strikeout, and the Commodores figured him out a little more, picking up two walks and two hits while he was on the mound.
Riley Stanford (Georgia Tech) relieved Seppings in the bottom of the sixth. Seppings put up seven strikeouts and allowed three walks and three hits. Seppings went the deepest into a game out of any starting pitcher for the Commodores with five innings.
“I just had all three pitches working, tried to attack as much as I could and let my defense work,” Seppings said. “I thought early on I was a little off and then found it and was able to get some swings and misses.”
While Stanford led the defense, the Mariners extended their lead to 3-0 in the bottom of the sixth with a solo home run from Michael Anderson (Rhode Island). During the top of the eighth, Justin Mitrovich (Elon) replaced Shaw.
Falmouth cracked a little more into Harwich’s pitching while Mitrovich was on the hill, pulling together two late rallies that were long overdue for the Commodores offense.
Donovan LaSalle (Oklahoma State) walked to load the bases and put the Commodores in a favorable scoring position, but runners were left stranded when Bowen grounded out in the top of the eighth.
Falmouth was 1-for-11 with runners in scoring position on the night with a total of six hits. Luke Gaffney (Clemson) was able to get a last-minute run punched in for Falmouth, but it was too late to spark a game-changing inning, falling 4-1 to Harwich.
The Commodores (3-9) will host the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox (9-3) at Guv Fuller Field on Saturday with the first pitch set for 6 p.m.
You can get live game updates on Instagram and X @FalCommodores or tune into the live television broadcast featuring Aiden Blanc, MJ Newsom and Braden Schenck on YouTube @FalmouthCommodores.
