Gavin Gallaher (North Carolina) hit a two-run blast and Charlie Saum (Stanford) hit his second home run as Yarmouth-Dennis beat Chatham for the third time this season, 4-2, on Wednesday at Veterans Field.
It was a battle of the top two teams in the Eastern Division as Sean Youngerman (Oklahoma State), Pablo Torres (Bethune-Cookman), Aiden Moffett (Texas), Caleb Anderson (Wichita State) and Trevor Moore (Stanford) combined to hold Chatham 0-for-15 with runners in scoring position and stranded 14 Anglers on base.
The Red Sox made five errors, had five hits and walked eight hitters, but timely hitting and opportunistic plays carried the load as Y-D picked up its 11th win in games decided by three runs or less to extend its record to a Cape League-best 15-6. Y-D is also 11-1 when scoring first, 10-0 when leading after 7 innings and 9-2 on the road.
The Red Sox are 3-0 against the Anglers this season and have combined to allow just five runs on 13 hits in the trio of contests. Chatham hit .147 and Y-D pitchers combined for 13 strikeouts to extend its record to 9-1 against Eastern Division opponents.
Youngerman made his fourth start with the Red Sox and had his second consecutive scoreless outing in a resilient performance. The right-hander danced around danger during his three innings by leaving six Anglers on base, left runners on the corners in the third and stranded the bases loaded in the second.
Youngerman stayed in the game after taking a sharply hit line drive off the arm and struck out five hitters including three inning-ending punchouts. Youngerman walked just two hitters and lowered his ERA on the season to 3.52 with 21 strikeouts in 15 ⅓ innings.
Right-hander Jacob Weaver (Austin Peay) was dominant for the first four of five innings and held the Red Sox hitless into the fifth inning. Weaver struck out three with no walks and allowed just one hit, which was the Gallaher blast.
Weaver kept Y-D hitters off balance with his breaking ball and lived down in the zone to induce 10 groundouts. After Phoenix Call (UCLA) was hit by a pitch for his league-leading ninth time, he stole his 12th base of the season and set the stage for Gallaher, who worked a nine-pitch at-bat and blasted his second home run over the right field fence.
Left-hander Micah Ashman (Utah) entered in the sixth and allowed a one-out single to Wehiwa Aloy (Arkansas), who has a hit in nine straight games and at least one in 16 of the last 17. Aloy advanced to second on a balk and scored on a two-out single from Anthony Martinez (UC Irvine) to give Y-D a 3-0 lead.
The Anglers scored their first run of the game in the bottom of the sixth as Moffett faced runners on the corners and two outs. Moffett lost control of a 2-0 pitch and was charged with a wild pitch which allowed Ashton Larson (LSU) to score. Anderson entered with two runners on and got an inning-ending strikeout to keep the score 3-1.
Saum got the Red Sox their run back in the top of the seventh and hit his second Cape League homer on the first pitch he saw from right-hander Pierce George (Alabama) to extend the Red Sox's lead to 4-1.
The Anglers cut into the lead in the bottom of the seventh as a pair of errors from the Red Sox infield allowed Ike Irish (Auburn) to score. Anderson stranded a runner on second to maintain the Red Sox's lead at 4-2.
Moore came out of the bullpen in the bottom of the eighth and allowed runners to reach on first and second before Caleb Stelly (Louisiana) roped a line drive at Call, who snagged the liner and stepped on second for an unassisted double play to end the frame.
Moore faced the game-winning run at the plate in the bottom of the ninth with runners on first and second but struck out three hitters in the inning to pick up his league-leading sixth save.
Photo by Sophie Solarino
