The Falmouth Commodores (6-8-1) took a tough 12-3 loss on the road against the Harwich Mariners (10-5) on Tuesday, but defeat didn’t come without its bright spots. New addition Brayden Jefferis (Michigan) logged two hits in his season debut, while Alex Stern (Golden West College) threw a strong three innings of relief against the Mariners.
Harwich got it going early with six base hits in the first inning, scoring its first four on RBI singles from J.P. Peltier (Kentucky), Chone James (Mississippi State) and Sean O’Leary (Massachusetts-Lowell). It tacked on another four in the second: a base hit from Jackson Hotchkiss (Washington) to score Nate Castellon (Cal Poly) preceded a three-run homer from Peltier to widen the gap to seven.
Only a seven run deficit, because Jefferis found himself a base knock to generate some offense for the Commodores in the half-inning previous. He’d advance after a Riley Jackson (Kentucky) walk and wheel himself from second to home on a Ben Slanker (Louisville) base hit.
Jefferis followed up in the top of the third with an RBI single to contribute to a two-run inning for the ‘Dores to cut the deficit to four. He found his success in keeping things simple on day one with the ‘Dores.
“On the first day, guys can get out of their approach and overdo it,” said Jefferis. “I was just trying to settle down. My first AB, I went down 0-2 and I tried to settle down and it worked out. [Cooper Walls (Florida)] threw me a heater and I tried to go the other way with it. They shifted, so I saw that and I was trying to take what they're giving me.”
Falmouth’s pitching staff couldn’t seem to piece it together in the early parts of the contest, getting knocked around for 11 runs in the first three innings, but Jefferis did his part in getting them extra outs at the hot corner, making athletic play after athletic play.
“I was trying to help the guys out on the mound,” he said. “I didn't want to give any more plays away or give those guys more runs, so I was trying to hold it down for them.”
When Stern entered in the third inning, the staff started to turn it around.
Stern found himself between a rock and a hard place, as he was tasked with maneuvering out of a bases-loaded jam. A sacrifice fly sandwiched between a pair of balks meant that he wasn’t able to do the job cleanly, but he began to find himself thereafter, stranding two baserunners by the end of the inning to keep the score 11-3.
Trusting his catcher, Dallas Brooks (UCF), was the north star that guided him through the fire set by the Harwich bats on Tuesday, as he said postgame “Dallas is a great catcher behind the plate: he knows the game well, he knows what to call and trusting him is something that's important to me. It’s always great as a pitcher to have a catcher who is involved, because they know what they're doing and it takes a lot of stress off yourself. I didn’t have to think about my pitches at all when he was calling them.”
Stern pitched a full three innings, surrendering only one earned run on a single hit.
That earned run from Stern was the last that the ‘Dores staff would allow. Ben Reimers (Stanford), Casen Murphy (Louisville) and Logan Pikur (Michigan State) all hurled scoreless innings to add more positives on a dim evening for the Commodores. The offense couldn’t catch flight on Tuesday night, only notching two more hits after the third frame.
Although the loss is tough to process, Stern and company put the game into perspective – the number one priority, win or loss, is for them to get better. He believes that’s what he did on Tuesday.
“You come here to get better, that’s the reason why people come here together, and if they say that's not true, then they're probably lying – you're facing the best hitters…I want to be better, that's really what it is. I just want to be better.”
Falmouth finds itself on a three game skid as it welcomes the Cape’s best in Yarmouth-Dennis on Wednesday night. First pitch is at 6:00 p.m.
