COTUIT, Mass. – The scene at Lowell Park moments before the Cotuit Kettleers and Harwich Mariners began the 2024 CCBL season could not have been more ideal.
From the Ketts’ perspective, the bleachers were packed with eager fans as the 2023 BFC Whitehouse Outstanding Pitcher Award winner Cam Hill (Georgia Tech) took the mound for the Opening Day start while the defense assumed their positions on a newly installed playing surface.
The southpaw even worked out of a jam in the top of the first inning to strand two baserunners, and the Cotuit offense followed up with coach Mike Roberts’ brand of backyard baseball to scratch across a run from a walk and aggressive baserunning to take a 1-0 lead.
But the game would turn on its head in the second inning, once Harwich sent 13 batters to the plate and scored eight in the frame en route to a 13-2 win in seven innings on Saturday.
“It boils down to walks,” said Roberts. “Cam and [Jacob] Shafer, they were here last year and I know them. But at school they struggled a little bit with different things and I can see why they struggled.”
The Kettleers found themselves in a hole quickly to start the second as Hill threw 10 consecutive balls to walk the first two batters. With one out and facing the No. 9 batter Bristol Carter (East Carolina), Harwich’s centerfielder tied the game with an RBI single past a diving Sean Keys (Bucknell) at third base.
With the lineup turned over, the Mariners continued their onslaught with two walks, a single, and a sacrifice fly from their top-four hitters to chase Hill from the game after 1 2/3 innings pitched with a 3-1 lead.
Shafer (Duke) relieved Hill to begin his second summer in Cotuit, but simply couldn’t find any help behind him. His outing started with a two-RBI single off the end of Macon Winslow’s (Duke) bat, followed by a walk to load the bases again. The 6’8” righthander then induced what looked like an inning-ending grounder to shortstop P.J. Moutzouridis (Cal), but it was booted away and two more runners raced home to make it 7-1 Mariners.
Harwich tacked on one more with a Jake Ogden (UNC Greensboro) opposite-field single to bring their total to eight runs in the frame before Shafer finally stopped the bleeding.
“Cam’s pulling off towards the third base dugout and Shafer’s pulling off toward the first base dugout. It's what I call swinging the gate open and both of them are swinging,” said Roberts “And let's just say when you do that, pitches are very hittable or you can't throw strikes.”
Roberts challenged the offense as well on Saturday, putting eight consecutive left-handed hitters in the lineup against southpaw Griffin Kirn (West Virginia). Fresh off his best season at Division II Quincy University with a three-quarter arm slot, Kirn pitched well, allowing two earned runs on two hits through five innings pitched to take the win.
Jarren Advincula (Cal) knocked a single into left field in his first at-bat and Brooks Bryan (Troy) snapped a stretch of seven straight Kettleers retired by Kirn with a leadoff double down the right field line to lead off the bottom of the fifth inning. Bryan scored the second run for Cotuit on an errant throw from a stolen base by Moutzouridis, but that would be just about all the offense produced on the night.
“I just think unless you want to be a platoon player, left’s gotta hit left, right’s gotta hit right and vice versa,” said Roberts. “So to me, I think it's normal. I know in professional baseball, it's not but in amateur baseball, you got to be able to handle that.”
In the fifth in an eight-run game, Roberts emptied the bench with five substitutions in the lineup. However, any comeback attempt became further diminished as the Harwich offense refused to relent as Michael Anderson (Rhode Island) put the cherry on top of a dominant win with his three-run oppo taco in the top of the seventh inning. Once Peter Haas (Stonehill) closed down the bottom half of the frame, Harwich walked away victorious thanks to the Cape League’s new mercy rule.
The Kettleers will have to move on quickly from their first Opening Day loss since 2016 when they travel to play Orleans at 6:30 p.m. Sunday, where the Firebirds will look to remove their zero from the win column.
“Strikes, field the routine ground ball, and put the ball in play at the plate,” said Roberts on his expectations against Orleans. “Same thing we always do here.”
