COTUIT, Mass. – When the Cotuit Kettleers walked off the field last Friday against the Harwich Mariners, they feared that star slugger Jack Natili (Cincinnati) had suffered a severe injury after getting hit in the forearm.
Fast forward six days later, the Bearcat backstop sent everyone at Lowell Park home early when he mashed a grand slam over the fences to give the Kettleers an 11-0 win over the Hyannis Harbor Hawks in eight innings.
“It gets the guys going,” Natili said of the dominant win. “It gets the team back on the train.”
Fresh off a three-RBI game in Falmouth Tuesday, Caden Bogenpohl (Missouri State) kept his bat hot in the first, bringing Ryne Farber (Auburn) home on a double for a 1-0 lead.
Both teams’ bats were nearly silent heading into the fourth inning, thanks to Max Haug’s (George Washington) four innings of shutout work.
“I just try to attack as much as I can with the fastball and then put them away with the off-speed pitches,” Haug said. “My breaking ball and slider weren’t working as well, so today especially I attacked early with fastballs.”
Wyatt Halvorson (Arizona State) and Nick Greaney (portal) preserved the shutout, combining for four innings of one-hit, no-run baseball.
The Kettleer offense tacked on two runs in the fourth on an RBI groundout from Tagger Tyson (Kentucky) and a double from Zan Von Schlegell (St. Thomas) to take a 3-0 lead.
Dean West (UCLA) added on to the lead with a sac-fly in the seventh, extending the Ketts’ lead to four runs.
In the eighth inning, the floodgates opened and runs from the Kettleers poured out.
Nolan Stevens (Oklahoma) kicked off the scoring with an RBI double to right to bring Case Sanderson (Nebraska) home. Two batters later, the Sooner came home on a single from Von Schlegell, putting the Kettleers up 6-0.
Bogenpohl continued his offensive bounceback on an RBI single with the bases loaded, extending the lead to seven runs.
Natili followed Bogenpohl’s at-bat with the nail in the coffin for Hyannis: his third grand slam of the season. Due to the league-mandated run-rule, that would be the end of the game, and Cotuit walked away with a victory they needed to move into the playoff picture.
NOTES
The Ketts have scored 22 runs in the first inning this season, which is second in the league.
The Cotuit pitching is second in the league in ERA, with just a 3.46 on the season.
Looking Ahead
The Kettleers hit the road tomorrow to face the Wareham Gatemen. First pitch from Spillane Field is set for 6:00 p.m..
