In the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox’s 5-4 loss against the Hyannis Harbor Hawks, relief pitcher Kadan Roach (North Greenville University) completed his second and best outing of the summer. After entering the game in the seventh inning, Roach only allowed one hit across the last three innings and recorded four strikeouts.
Tonight’s game served as a redemption outing for the right-hander.
Despite his 3.34 ERA, 1.175 WHIP, and 11.1 strikeouts per nine recorded in his 2026 collegiate season, Roach’s high-caliber full arm hadn’t found its way to Cape Cod until this evening. In his debut on Friday against the Chatham Anglers, Roach entered in the fourth inning and stayed in until the sixth. He allowed five hits and three earned runs.
Tonight’s improvement was meaningful for Roach.
“Felt really good to bounce back,” said Roach. “It was nice to come back out here.”
Roach said his changeup and fastball felt the most comfortable in this outing. Y-D Pitching Coach Eric Beattie agreed.
“He looked awesome today. His fastball was good. I think there’s some deception out of his hand with his fastball…and then he had really good arm speed with his change up and really good location,” said Beattie.
Between Friday’s Chatham game and tonight, Roach lowered the majority of his pitches.
“I feel like I was more down in the zone here, and against these hitters, it’s really big to be down,” Roach said.
Beattie praised Roach’s height adjustments.
“He threw a lot of strikes his last outing, but everything was just kind of up in the zone. Today seemed like his extension was way better, and the ball was just out a lot better,” said Beattie.
To ensure that his successful outing was not a one-off, Roach said he will continue his staple shoulder mobility warmups before his outings.
Roach’s arrival comes at a time when Y-D’s rotation spots are up in the air. Reliable Y-D bullpen arms like Zach Russell (Mississippi State) and Danny Nelson (Clemson) have left for the season, and pitchers like Cade O’Leary and Rhett Vaughn (Florida State) have made their debuts as starters. As Y-D brings in replacement relievers who haven’t competitively pitched yet this summer, this poses a challenge for pitchers like Roach.
“Some of them have not competed all summer long, so they’ve been throwing but they haven’t been competing, and competing’s different. So it takes one or two outings to really get going and get back into competition,” said Beattie.
Beattie also noted that as pitchers refamiliarize themselves with competing, they get the opportunity to learn from their mistakes.
“You come out and you don’t have your best outing, you start to reflect and talk it through, and you figure out what went wrong and you fix it,” said Beattie. “Then, hopefully, your next outing is better.”
