After losing possession of first place of their division to the Bourne Braves (3-1-2), the Falmouth Commodores (3-2-1) ventured to Doran Park on a breezy Friday night with the objective of regaining sole possession of the top spot in the West Division.
They’d be denied by their adversaries, as they’d claw back from a three-run deficit to end the game in a tie. A combination of bad luck and less-than-ideal field conditions gave the ‘Dores some defensive trouble down the stretch, ultimately eroding their lead.
Head coach Jack Dahm gave the starting nod to Kenyon Collins, who provided the Commodores a much-needed spark on the mound. The Marshall right-hander hurled three scoreless innings in an outing where his breaking balls had some extra bite to it.
“[He] had a good mix,” said pitching coach Paul Evans when breaking down Collins’ Friday start. “The slider was finding the zone, plus changeup against the lefties. He got some punchouts. There were a couple of good downward curveballs for some punchouts too...I can't say anything but good things about that 3 inning start.”
Falmouth opened up the scoring in the top of the second, drawing back-to-back walks to start the frame. Its rally was nearly halted after Bourne starter Madden Clement (formerly Virginia Tech, in transfer portal) caught Pearson Riebock (Baylor) staying a tad too far from second base, but the Commodore third baseman wiggled his way out of the rundown with a nifty swim move around Trent Caraway’s (formerly Louisiana, in transfer portal) tag.
Riebock came home on a Nick Venteicher groundout to make it 1-0 ‘Dores.
That score was tripled in the top of the fourth, courtesy of an RBI double from Ty Kaunas (Texas Tech), followed by a run-scoring single off the bat of Austin Mallee (formerly Gateway JC, in transfer portal).
In the bottom half of the inning, Brayden Bergman (formerly Baylor, in transfer portal) carried the load on the bump and held the Braves to one run in the middle three frames, punching out four in the process.
Bourne cut the lead in half by making consistent hard contact in the bottom of the seventh, inducing three Commodore errors that scored leadoff batter John Stuetzer (Florida State). Nonetheless, Sachem Ramos (Florida Southern) was able to bear down to record a clutch inning-ending strikeout.
Much like the ‘Dores starting pitcher, Evans had high praise for one of their premier middle relievers, saying “Sachem was really good. He had 3 days rest, he was tremendous at Y-D the other day. He came in today. He was pumping the ball with his sinker [and] got some ground balls.”
However, when he returned to the mound for the bottom of the eighth, he was greeted by a gritty lower third of the Braves’ order, two of whom worked walks to put the pressure on the Commodores. Dahm elected to turn to a reliever who's becoming synonymous with high-leverage situations: Logan Pikur.
Before even throwing a pitch, Pikur plucked a runner off the basepaths with a smooth pickoff move towards second base, completely fooling Derrick Pitts (Cincinnati) as he ran himself into a 1-4-5 putout.
After the game, the Michigan State arm accredited the high IQ play to their defensive awareness.
“[Jimmy] was just like, ‘those hitters are talking a lot to their coaches, they're gonna run something. Let's run an inside move.’ When I looked over my shoulder at 2nd on the 1st pitch, I knew that they were planning something because he was extended and thankfully I was able to get the job done. It was nice.”
With two outs in the inning, Pikur turned his attention to Stuetzer, who stood in the box as the go-ahead run for Bourne. Three pitches later, he'd completed the Houdini act with the biggest strikeout of the evening, to which the Commodore dugout erupted – an exuberant validation that the magnitude of his crunch-time performances was felt by those by his side in battle.
“If I hear nobody, I feel like I'm doing it for nobody,” he said. “When I hear people, I feel like I'm doing it for my team. We got a ton of winners on our team, a ton of great guys and they're super competitive and I like playing with competitive guys.”
Two popouts, separated by a Andrew Costello (Wake Forest) single, put Pikur and the ‘Dores on the brink of victory in the top of the ninth, but the first-place Braves wouldn’t fade into the Bourne night so easily. A hard-hit grounder from Garrett Michel (Arizona State) moved Costello to second, setting him up to score on a game-tying RBI single from Luke Costello (Wake Forest).
With the winning run on third, Pikur fired an inside fastball that broke the bat of Caraway and sent a looping fly ball into short center field. The Braves dugout readied themselves to flood the diamond, but the growing elation of the Bourne dugout was stumped by a diving Fabio Peralta, who saved the game for Falmouth.
After extending the game to extras and gaining a runner on second, a walk and a sac bunt put runners on second and third, but the ‘Dores were unable to cash in. The Braves were afforded the opportunity to win it in the final half-inning of Friday night’s tug-of-war affair, but Pikur slammed the door with a game-ending double play to preserve the tie, a play that he called “big time”.
With the tie, Falmouth remains in second place, now tied with Cotuit at seven points. The Commodores will seek to create distance in Chatham, when they face the Anglers on Saturday, June 20, at 7:00 p.m.
