The No. 3 East Division seed Harwich Mariners and No. 4 West Division seed Bourne Braves advanced to the Cape Cod Baseball League’s best-of-three Championship Series. The Mariners last won the Cape League Championship in 2011, while the Braves are vying to win their third straight title. Read below for a roundup of each game from the series.
Game 1
The game was won when…
In his second Cape League appearance, Bourne starter Jonathan Stevens (Alabama) held the Mariners in check, pitching four innings, allowing just one run, three hits and striking out three. Though after 68 pitches, Braves manager Scott Landers called upon Cameron Padgett (North Carolina) from the bullpen.
Instantly, the Mariners’ offense came alive. First, Jake Ogden (Miami) led the inning off with a single. This turned the lineup over to Cam Maldonado (Northeastern). Despite striking out, the Cape League’s Most Outstanding New England Player worked a nine-pitch at-bat.
Padgett instantly attacked Aiden Robbins (Seton Hall) after laboring against Maldonado, but his first delivery caught too much of the plate, as Robbins poked it the other way for a base hit. Aden Hill (Maryland) then continued moving the line, registering Harwich’s third single of the inning to extend its lead to 2-0.
Following a seven-pitch walk from Wilson Weber (Oregon State), the bases were loaded with one out for Cade Kurland (Florida). After getting ahead in the count 2-1, the Cape League All-Star ripped a line drive 96 mph into center field, giving the Mariners a 3-0 lead.
Two pitches later, it looked like Padgett would escape the inning on a double play after Matt Scannell (Princeton) ripped a grounder to second base. Instead, the ball took a wicked hop before Braves second baseman Camden Kozeal (Arkansas) could get his glove on it, scoring Hill and Weber while advancing Kurland to third. Daniel Dickinson (LSU) laid down a sac bunt, scoring Kurland and capping off the five-run frame. From there, the Mariners cruised to a 7-3 win.
“That was huge,” Harwich manager Steve Engler said postgame of the fifth inning. “That was so big, we got our knocks when we needed them with runners in scoring position.”
Stat to know: 3
Before the Mariners broke the game open in the fifth, the Braves had multiple chances to knot the game up. After stranding two runners in scoring position with one out in the third, Davis Gillespie (Southern Mississippi) led the fourth inning off with a single. Yet, he was quickly erased on a failed hit-and-run attempt, getting thrown out trying to steal second base. Kozeal sliced a double down the left field line a pitch later, which would’ve scored Gillespie from first to tie the game.
Though Kozeal gave Bourne a new life, he was also thrown out on the bases. When John Schroeder (Florida Atlantic), the ensuing batter, hit a grounder up the middle, Dickinson ranged to his left to flag it down. Kozeal ran to third, and the Harwich shortstop threw behind him trying to get the out. Instead, Dickinson overthrew Ogden at third and Kozeal tried scoring. Yet, the ball caromed right back to Ogden, who threw out Kozeal at the plate.
The Braves again caused instant traffic in the fifth, now trailing 6-0. After Chris Stanfield (Auburn) led off the inning with a hit-by-pitch, Ethan Conrad (Wake Forrest) worked a six-pitch walk. Despite being the trailing runner, Conrad was picked off at first base with Marek Houston (Wake Forrest) at the plate. Bourne scored two runs that inning, but had Conrad stayed on base, the Braves could’ve put an even further dent into Harwich’s lead.
The Braves notched 13 hits compared to the Mariners’ 10 throughout the game. Yet, their three base running mistakes mitigated potential run-scoring opportunities.
Player of the game: Aden Hill
Throughout a turbulent regular season, Englert credits Robbins, Weber and Hill’s late-season arrival with helping the team earn a playoff spot. On Saturday, Hill reached base a game-high three times while scoring twice and driving a run in.
Following his fifth-inning RBI and run scored, Hill’s next at-bat was a leadoff double in the seventh inning. A couple of pitches later, the outfielder advanced to third base on a wild pitch before Weber walked to put runners on the corners for Kurland. The second baseman drove Hill in on a fielder’s choice, extending the Mariners’ lead to 7-2.
Quote of the night:
“We’re not done yet, they’re dangerous over there,” Englert said. “We got work to do. So you can’t get too excited, it’s a good win, but can’t get too excited. They’re a dangerous team, gotta finish it.”
Game 2
The game was won when…
Bourne’s bats got hot early on. The Braves scored a run in each of the first four innings, putting the game out of reach for Harwich quickly. On the brink of elimination, Chase Meggers (Oregon) set the tone with an RBI triple in the first inning. The following frame, David Lewis (Virginia Tech) crushed a home run. Bourne was moving runners over all night long, ending the game with 11 hits and five walks.
Harwich’s offense wasn’t as potent as it was in Game 1, and they weren’t able to get to the Braves’ bullpen. After Bourne’s Trystan Levesque (Rhode Island) exited the game after pitching the first 2 1/3 innings, the Mariners only recorded three hits. The duo of Griffin Hugus (Cincinnati) and Justin West (Louisville) threw the last 6 2/3 innings, managing any Harwich traffic on the basepaths and effectively shutting them down.
A three-run eighth inning really put the game away, officially forcing a winner-take-all Game 3. The Braves seem to have momentum entering the final game of the Cape League season coming off their clutch win, but the Mariners already took a game at Doran Park and can win their 6th title with one more. The Braves will look to complete the three-peat and win their third championship in as many years.
Stat to know: 11
The Mariners stranded 11 base runners in Sunday night’s contest. Despite six hits and seven walks, they were only able to push across one run after Cam Maldonado (Northeastern) slid into first base just beating out a throw from Marek Houston (Wake Forest) at shortstop. With runners in scoring position, Harwich recorded only one hit in seven opportunities.
The night before, they came through when they had runners on. They had four hits with runners in scoring position and only stranded eight. If the Mariners are to rebound and take the championship, they’ll have to reset their plate approach to be better with runners on base; albeit on the road, one of their keys is getting to Bourne’s pitching early.
Player of the game: David Lewis
One of three Braves with a multi-hit game, David Lewis blasted his first Cape League home run when it mattered most. In the second inning with a 3-1 count, Lewis crushed a 400-foot homer coming off his bat at 102 mph.
That set the tone for the Braves offense the rest of the night, really putting them in attack mode; they battled the Harwich pitching staff all night. Lewis drove in another run on a groundout to short and also knocked a single to center field later in the game.
Quote of the night:
“We wanted to get on them early and get ahead, so that’s what we did,” player of the game David Lewis said. As for his mindset heading into Game 3, Lewis said, “We’ll play it like any other game, it’s just another game.”
Game 3
The game was won when…
With one out and a runner on second in the top of the sixth, Cam Maldonado (Northeastern) ripped a double to center field, opening the Mariners' lead up to two runs. Bourne’s David Lewis (Virginia Tech) continued his playoff hot streak by bringing the Braves to within one in the eighth inning on an RBI single.
However, the Harwich Mariners proved to be the class of the Cape League playoffs, holding off Bourne as Kevin Zarnoch (UMass-Lowell) came in for the save. With a 1-2-3 inning, the Mariners became Cape League champions for the first time since 2011.
Macon Winslow (Duke) opened the scoring with a single in the second inning, putting Harwich up a run. The next frame, the Most Valuable Player of the playoffs, Wilson Weber (Oregon State), and Cade Kurland (Florida) added two more runs on base hits of their own.
Stat to know: 13
The Harwich Mariners are Cape Cod Baseball League champions for the first time in 13 years. Back in 2011, the Mariners defeated the Falmouth Commodores to win their fifth title. In 2019, manager Steve Englert and the Mariners made it back to the championship but fell to the Cotuit Kettleers in two games.
After their 4-3 victory in Game 3 though over the Bourne Braves, they are officially back atop the Cape League mountain. Weber received the Most Valuable Player in the playoffs honors after he slashed .375/.464/.500 in their six-game championship run.
Player of the game: Kevin Zarnoch
In a one-run game in the bottom of the ninth, the Dorchester, Massachusetts, native entered the game for the Mariners. Despite all of the pressure on him, Zarnoch delivered three quick outs to deliver the Mariners' sixth championship.
In just 13 pitches, he retired Bourne’s eighth, ninth and leadoff hitters. After getting the first hitter to fly out to left, Zarnoch turned up the heat and struck out the next two Braves. With all eyes on him, Zarnoch delivered in championship fashion.
Quote of the night:
“They’re just a bunch of absolute grinders, they came out every day, it didn’t matter what the record was. They played hard all year long,” Englert said of the Mariners. He told them, “If we can find a way to get in [the playoffs], we can do some damage… I’m proud of them, I can’t say enough good things about these kids.”
(Photograph by Nate Tacey)
