Yarmouth-Dennis fought back from a 4-1 deficit with a three-run seventh inning to come away with a tie against the Bourne Braves on Monday.
In the first meeting between the two teams this summer, Y-D and Bourne both ended up with four runs and eight hits apiece. For the second straight game, the Y-D pitching staff displayed dominant stuff throughout the afternoon with 14 combined strikeouts among the four pitchers after racking up 13 strikeouts on Sunday against Orleans.
The impressive display on the mound began with Jacob Tabor, the left-hander from Toledo, who got the start for Y-D. Tabor earned a spot on the All-Mid-American Conference First Team in his sophomore season with Toledo, where he pitched to a 3.84 ERA and allowed only two home runs in 58.2 innings.
Tabor cruised through his first two innings of work with three strikeouts and just one baserunner allowed. After retiring the first two hitters of the third, he was removed from the game due to injury, forcing Y-D Manager Scott Pickler to turn to Michael Catalano (Oklahoma) out of the bullpen.
Joey Colucci (Virginia) toed the rubber for Bourne and matched the zeroes put up by Y-D pitching in the first three innings. Colucci didn’t work more than three innings in any of his appearances at Virginia this season; however, he worked into the fourth during his first start of the summer on Monday.
Y-D was able to push a run across in the fourth when Alex Hernandez (Georgia Tech) came up with runners at the corners and drove a sacrifice fly into center field that scored Garrett Wright (Tennessee). The run marked the third consecutive game to start the year where Y-D has gotten on the board first.
The Braves responded immediately with a three-run fifth inning where they took advantage of a couple of costly errors by Y-D. Bourne also executed a double steal where Ryker Waite (Vanderbilt) stole second and Weber Neels (Minnesota) came in to score the tying run on the throw. Back-to-back RBI doubles by Kade Lewis and Braden Holcomb gave the Braves a two-run advantage.
Tyler Pitzer (South Carolina) entered the game for Y-D and prevented further damage in the fifth inning. He was able to keep the team within striking distance across 2.1 innings, where he allowed two hits, one earned run and struck out five hitters.
Heading into the bottom half of the seventh, Zack Konstantinovsky had retired all six batters he faced out of the bullpen for Bourne. Avery Ortiz (Oklahoma State) was able to change that, though, by leading off the inning with a double that sparked a rally for Y-D. After a couple walks and a wild pitch that brought in Ortiz, the stage was set for Cody Miller (East Tennessee State) with the game-tying run at second base.
Miller had started his season 1-10 at the plate, but he delivered when it mattered most, hitting a line drive into center for a two-run single that tied the game at 4-4.
“Miller comes up in that situation and drives that ball,” Pickler said. “He didn’t have a good day until then, but you live with your next at-bat.”
With the game being shortened to eight innings due to darkness, Y-D had a chance to walk it off after Zach Harris (Georgia) pitched a scoreless top of the eighth. Nolan Traeger (TCU) and Garrett Wright both reached to start the inning, and Y-D had runners at the corners with nobody out. Derrick Smith (NC State) was able to pull off a magic act for Bourne, recording back-to-back strikeouts and inducing a groundout to prevent the winning run from crossing the plate.
“A little disappointing that we couldn’t get the guy in from third,” Pickler said. “But, with where I was in the sixth inning, I’ll take [the tie].”
Following the tie, Y-D moves to 1-1-1 on the season and will now head on the road for a matchup with Wareham at 6 p.m. on Tuesday.
(Photo by Sophie Solarino)
