The Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox won the CCBL East Division Title after a Brewster Whitecaps loss against the Orleans Firebirds. Following that result, Y-D played a 10-inning, 6-4 win over the Bourne Braves with a derby-caliber performance by Tommy Goodin (Vanderbilt), a timely Ryder Robinson (BYU) hit, and a relentless arm rotation to outmatch Bourne’s booming offense.
Of the six runs Y-D scored, three were courtesy of Goodin. The All-Star hitter bookended the game with a two-run homer in the top of the first to give Y-D an early 2-1 lead, and led off the top of the tenth with an RBI double to score Y-D’s ghost runner Cole Hansen (Cal Baptist) to put Y-D ahead 4-3. Goodin ended the game 3-for-5 with three RBI, a .313 batting average, and an .881 OPS on the season.
Goodin told Y-D sideline reporter Olivia Lambert that his key to success was “just coming up there and not trying to do too much. Hopefully we come out here and keep competing as hard as we can. Let’s get this championship.”
Another Y-D clutch bat was Robinson who smoked a line drive into the left-center field gap for a go-ahead, two-run single which put Y-D ahead 6-4.
Apart from Goodin’s performance, Y-D was strategic about its distribution of innings to its arms.
The outings were kept short and sweet amongst five pitchers. Rhett Vaughn (Florida State) started the game and pitched for three innings despite only allowing two hits and forcing one strikeout; Evan Hoeckele (St. John’s) pitched for 1 2/3 innings; Cameron Teper (Cal Baptist) pitched for two innings; Peyton Rodgers (UC-Irvine) pitched for 2 1/3 innings; and Owen Birchard pitched for the final inning.
Y-D Head Coach Scott Pickler explained that their use of many arms was to prepare for the postseason, which the team clinched on July 17.
“The playoffs start Tuesday. I can’t let a guy go too long,” said Pickler. “It’s nice that we won the league championship, but that isn’t our goal. They all had a pitch count so they’ll be able to throw next week.”
Vaughn, who started the game, recorded his eleventh outing and second start for Y-D. The right-hander now posts a 0.81 ERA over 22 1/3 innings, and has proven to be a reliable, consistent arm for the team.
“[I’m] just trying to be able to take it one day at a time, one start a time. You know, each inning is different, [so I’m] just trying to do one pitch at a time,” said Vaughn.
Another notable pitcher was Rodgers, who earned the win. Although Rodgers was off to a shaky start after giving up back-to-back home runs that tied the game 3-3, he didn’t relent. He followed the base hit and two homers with two strikeouts and no hits allowed over the following two innings. Somehow, the reliever kept his cool.
“I tried to be myself the next few innings, and then everything fell [and] stuff started working out. I didn’t really want to make any big panic change or anything like that,” said Rodgers.
Y-D will play its final game of the regular season on Sunday, August 2 against the Chatham Anglers on Red Wilson Field at 4:30 p.m.
