The Hyannis Harbor Hawks lost, 6-3, against the Harwich Mariners, seeing defensive lapses pile up early on. With the win, the Mariners (14-12-3) climbed out of last place in the East Division, while the Harbor Hawks (12-15-3) dropped to fourth place in the West Division with the loss.
“We’ve just got to play better,” Hyannis manager Mitch Karraker said. “Two-out hits, two-out RBIs are big, it doesn’t seem like they’re coming for us at this point. Feels like, on the mound, we got to be perfect in order to be successful. We need to step it up on both sides of the ball.”
Harwich took control of the game in the third and fourth innings, tacking on five runs while Hyannis’ defense faltered. After two smooth outs to start the top of the third for Harbor Hawks starter Tyler August, Niko Brini awakened the visiting offense with an infield single deep in the hole at shortstop.
Not long after, Brini took off for second, where a throw by Matthew Chatelle skied into the outfield, advancing the Wofford outfielder to third. Chatelle was freshly put in the game after an injury to Brody Briggs the inning prior forced his removal.
With a man on third and two out, Aidan Robbins grounded to the shortstop, Charlie Bates, who floated the throw over Gabe Camacho’s head at first, scoring the run and extending the inning.
August then delivered eight balls on his next 10 pitches, walking back-to-back batters to load the bases. Dee Kennedy delivered with ducks on the pond, ripping a double down the left field line to score a pair.
August finished the inning with a groundout, concluding his first start with Hyannis in three frames.
Tsubasa Tomii took the mound in the fourth for the Harbor Hawks, starting his outing by hitting the first batter, but turned a double play after fielding a ground ball from the next batter. Again, the Mariners' offense engaged with two outs.
After a Tanner Marsh single into center, Brini ripped a ground ball toward Camacho. The UCSD first baseman, blinded by the sun, attempted a wild snag of the hot roller but knocked the ball out of play for a ground-rule double.
With runners on second and third, Tomii was called for a balk, moving each runner up and scoring one.
“The umpire’s interpretation was that (Tomii) paused at the top of his delivery, which, by rule, that is a balk.” Karraker said. “Our frustration is that he’s been pitching like that all summer and (we) haven’t had anybody at least talk to us about it.”
Tomii got called for a second balk within the same at-bat, that time stepping off the mound in the middle of his windup. This brought in Harwich’s fifth run, with its final insurance run coming on a two-out RBI single by Marsh in the top of the sixth.
On top of the layering defensive mishaps, Hyannis’ offense scored sparingly throughout the game. With a sacrifice fly by Jeff Lougee in the first inning and a Jake Schaffner RBI single in the ninth, the seventh inning was the Harbor Hawks’ biggest chance to break through.
Bates led off the inning with a walk, followed by another free pass drawn by Owen Prince two outs later. Schaffner then lightly skipped a grounder to the left side of the infield with no play to be made by a diving Sam DeCarlo at third, loading the bases.
With the bags full, Parker Brosius took the second pitch of his at-bat to the back, driving in one and bringing the tying run to the plate. After working to a 2-2 count, Lougee waved and missed at a pitch below the zone, leaving multiple potential runs on the board.
In total, Hyannis went 2-for-7 with runners in scoring position, stranding eight runners in total.
The Harbor Hawks look to turn around their play on both sides of the ball against the Cotuit Kettleers on Thursday at 4:30 p.m. in Lowell Park.
Tym Brown can be reached at tymbrown12@gmail.com and followed on X @tym_brown1.
