When Avery Ortiz made contact with Ryan Speshyock’s 1-0 offering in the ninth inning, it looked like trouble immediately.
By the time the ball fell between second baseman Ryan McKay and center fielder Jason Walk, the tying run had already scored, and the winning run was racing around third. There was no play that Walk could make, and the Hawks wound up on the wrong end of a tough 5-4 loss to the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox on Sunday evening.
The matchup between the 8-3-1 Hyannis Harbor Hawks and 9-2-1 Y-D Red Sox was expected to be the best game of the summer so far, and it lived up to the billing. The Hawks were close to stopping the Red Sox's eight-game win streak but ultimately wound up on the wrong side of the matchup between the league’s two best teams. Hyannis now sits at 8-4-1 and Y-D at 10-2-1 after extending its win streak to nine games at the expense of the Hawks.
“It was a good game. Really good game throughout,” Hawks manager Mitch Karraker said. “Both sides pitched really well, there was not a ton of offense. We put some good swings on balls, we had opportunities to extend that lead. We had bases loaded, we hit into a double play. We had some opportunities that slipped away from us a little bit, but overall I am pretty pleased with the performance.”
The first three innings flew by without a score on either side. With Mason Russell pitching in the fourth for the Hawks, two RBI singles and a double play that brought a run home put Y-D in the driver’s seat with a 3-0 lead.
Hyannis got right to work on a comeback. In the fifth inning, Stone Lawless blasted his first Cape League homer with a shot over the left-field fence, and a throwing error on a pickoff attempt allowed Jeff Lougee to score and cut the Y-D lead to 3-2.
When the eighth inning rolled around, the Hawks jumped on Y-D pitcher Bo Rhudy. After Jaxon Willits legged out an infield single, Gabe Camacho ripped a triple down the right-field line, bringing Willits across the plate to tie the game. Camacho then scored on a sacrifice fly by Andrew Williamson, and suddenly the Hawks were in front.
“The quality of the at-bats was really good,” Karraker said. “Gabe putting a good swing on that and ‘Willy’ coming in there and getting a sac fly was huge. That’s just good baseball.”
Just as the Hawks were on the cusp of securing their first comeback victory of the summer, momentum swung away from them just as quickly as it arrived, and it did so at the worst time.
After Ryan Speshyock got the first out of the ninth, he walked eight-hole hitter Jack Bell. That brought up Dean Carpentier, who laced a double to left field to put two runners in scoring position with just one out. After intentionally walking Brayden Dowd to load the bases and set up a double play, Ortiz blooped one between McKay and Walk to score the two runs necessary for a Y-D win.
Just like that, the comeback staged by the offense ended up being all for naught.
The Hawks might not have had a chance at a comeback win if not for their pitching staff. After Carson Jasa handled the first 2 2/3 innings and Russell the next 1 1/3 innings, Santiago Garcia was the next man out of the Hyannis bullpen.
Garcia delivered with a big showing. He pitched four hitless innings, issuing just two walks and striking out four hitters. His ERA remained at zero, with nine scoreless innings in four relief outings this summer.
“He had great command. Probably the best command he has had all summer, which was nice,” Karraker said about Garcia. “(He) had a couple pitches working for him, even the change, which is not his specialty, was in there. Really pleased with his performance.”
Reflecting on his latest scoreless appearance, Garcia felt really good about how his fastball played against a tough Y-D lineup.
“It is usually my secondary pitch that I can line for a strike (that) is where I get all my strikeouts,” Garcia said. “But, obviously it showed today that my fastball can do it.”
With the month of June about to end, the Hawks can look back at what was a great month for them, as they remain firmly in first place in the West Division.
They have two more chances to beat Y-D in the coming week, but one team they have to worry about first is the 6-6-1 Harwich Mariners, who the Hawks battle in their first game of July on the road. First pitch is set for 6:30 p.m. Tuesday.
