COTUIT, Mass. — Cotuit made the trek to Martha’s Vineyard to take on the Sharks in a scrimmage. It marked the second exhibition game for the Kettleers, who were coming off a 10-2 win over Lexington on Sunday.
The game may have been played at the Shark Tank, but it was the Kettleers who came out alive. They swam as the Sharks sank, securing a 6-2 win Monday.
With this being an exhibition, some parts of the game were altered. The Kettleers utilized a 10-person lineup, and the game lasted just eight innings. Each team also only put up five batters an inning (unless three outs were recorded first).
With a 1-1 tied game in the second inning, Isaac Sturgess logged a sacrifice fly to give the Kettleers a 2-1 lead. From then on, the Kettleers commanded the game.
Following a lull, Jesse Di Maggio smashed a double in the fifth to bring in Sturgess and stretch Cotuit’s lead to 3-1. Hogan Denny followed that up with a homer in the sixth to put the Kettleers ahead 4-1.
The Sharks added a run in the sixth after an error to cut the deficit to 4-2, but it was too little, too late. Cotuit’s Dayton Murphy recorded an RBI in the seventh for a 5-2 lead, and Jake Hanley’s triple in the eighth drove in Denny to cap the scoring.
The Kettleers got things going early, taking a 1-0 lead in the first inning. After Di Maggio doubled, Landon Beaver immediately singled. A couple of batters later, Jake Hanley notched a single that scored a run and gave Cotuit a 1-0 lead.
That was all the Kettleers could do before the inning switched due to the five-batter rule.
At the bottom of the first, Jaylen Hernandez whacked a single for Martha’s Vineyard. As he sprinted toward first base, he collided with the Kettleers’ first baseman. He got up after a brief moment of concern, but his single resulted in an RBI and tied the game at one run apiece.
Jackson Yarberry pitched two innings for the Kettleers, allowing four hits and one run. Josh Halcisak took over in the third, and he allowed just one hit across three innings. Max Haug and Tyler Brashear finished things off. Haug allowed one hit and one run, while Brashear allowed one hit in the final inning.
The Kettleers return to the field for their first game of the regular season at 4:30 p.m. EDT Saturday. They are set to host Wareham at Lowell Park in Cotuit, Massachusetts.
