After slugging their way to a victory over Falmouth on Sunday night, the Harwich Mariners reverted back to what has become the norm for them on Monday night: a tight, low-scoring pitchers duel. A Ryan Weingartner 2-run home run proved to be the difference in an otherwise dry offensive night for Harwich, as strong efforts from the pitching staff carried the Mariners to a 4-2 victory over the Chatham Anglers.
Leading 4-1 heading into the top of the ninth, Harwich manager Steve Englert made a call to the bullpen to bring in 6'5 Sam Tookoian. With three runs to work with, Tookoian quickly got the first out of the inning, forcing a groundout.
The next Chatham batter, John Bay, ripped a single to center field, putting some pressure on Tookoian. The big man on the mound then walked the next batter, bringing the tying run to the plate in Austin Over, Chatham's leadoff hitter who already had two hits on the night.
Overn then cracked what looked to be a tailor-made double play ball to second base, but the ball snuck through Ryan Weingartner and Sam McNulty, allowing a run to score and bringing the game winning run to the plate for the Anglers.
Tookoian wasn't going to make the same mistake twice however, and got Ashton Larson to roll a weak grounder to McNulty that resulted in game ending double play the Mariners could have gotten a batter before.
With the win, the Mariners improve to 6-3 on the season.
Ryan DeSanto
"That was a fun game, we've had a lot of good games this year; it's always fun to win too, but we got another great pitching performance by [Ryan DeSanto]. The the bullpen looked good, we got some hits when we needed to. Guys are playing hard."
"That's the second good outing [from DeSanto]. The kid just attacks the zone and knows how to pitch. He doesn't try to light up the radar gun and he knows how to get outs. He pitches to contact and he'll punch a guy out here and there."
"He knows what type of player he is, he doesn't try to do too much. When he's in the box he's extremely comfortable and he's coming up with some big, big hits for us."
"I was really just trying to attack them early because early on I noticed that they were swinging on one of the first three pitches, so I knew if I made my pitch early on I could get them out early. I have a great defense behind be so I trust them and they made a lot of great plays."
"Ton of competitiveness, they're playing their ass off all nine innings and it's really fun to watch."
