The Commodores (6-7-1) hit the road once more on Monday night for their first matchup of the season against the Hyannis Harbor Hawks (5-9).
On home turf, Hyannis got it going early, seizing momentum with six runs through the first three innings to hand Falmouth its second consecutive loss.
Both offenses set off fireworks in the first inning – the ‘Dores drew first blood before the Harbor Hawks struck back. Pearson Riebock (Baylor) revved up the Commodore engine by drawing a walk and scampered his way around the bases on back-to-back singles from Ty Kaunas (Texas Tech) and Jimmy Nugent (Louisville).
Hyannis’ response in the bottom half of the inning started with a pair of singles from Jax Gimenez (Oregon) and Caden Miller (UTSA). After a wild pitch, a two-out base hit from Charlie Bates (Stanford) scored both to give the Harbor Hawks a 2-1 lead.
A trio of hard hit baseballs ballooned that lead to five in the third: a double from Matt Ineich (West Virginia), a single from Kyle Alivo (Iowa) and a three-run homer from Will Fosberg (Northeastern) widened the gap to four, which grew to five after a ground ball from Ineich in the following frame scored Jordan Lodise (Centralia).
In that third inning, Adam Urban (Minnesota) took over with a runner on first and halted the Harbor Hawk offense, letting his fastball and slider carry him to a scoreless four inning, two-hit outing in which he punched out five. “Starting them off slow and then speeding up their bat and mixing up speeds was the best thing that helped me throw off their timing,” he said.
He surrendered a single to the first batter he faced, but a strikeout of J.P. Head (UAB) proved to be the turning point for him.
“I got ahead 0-1, and that's the main thing, getting ahead,” Urban said. “I felt like I won that battle, in a way…being ahead keeps me really confident and keeps me in the groove.”
On the other side of things, Carter Cox (Northern Illinois) and Sax Matson (USC) combined for six innings of one-run ball, combining for six strikeouts.
Falmouth got itself on the board once more in the seventh with a pair of lasers off the barrels of Nugent and Ben Slanker (Louisville). Nugent doubled off the wall before Slanker bounced a base hit into center field, making it a 6-2 deficit.
[Truitt Webb (Southeastern Louisiana)] was pitching a lot of guys backwards – had two different shapes of a breaking ball, had a pretty decent heater,” said Nugent. “He didn't execute one or two breaking balls, and kind of freed me up for a little bit more of a heater. I got one that I could hit.”
For Jimmy, the double capped a 3-for-4 performance at the plate for him – a testament to his focus in the batter’s box. “A lot of it is preparation, especially pregame, just getting my feels right,” he says. ”It's hard to hit here…we gotta make adjustments, get the right feel before a game.”
But that would be all for the Commodores, as Webb went on to record the final nine outs for the Harbor Hawks.
The ‘Dores left 10 runners on base in Monday’s contest, which they take as a sign that their practice plan needs to change. “[The issue is] a lot of [incorrect] approach and preparation in the pregame,” said Nugent. “Really knowing what we're getting and the shapes of the pitches that we're gonna get and how [pitchers are] gonna attack guys [is important]. I think that bit needs to be a little more sharper, just a little bit better on the preparation piece, and I think we're gonna be a lot better.”
After the loss, the Commodores will seek to stop their recent skid against the Harwich Mariners on the road tomorrow, June 30, at 6:30 p.m.
