Led by a stellar pitching staff that allowed zero earned runs for the second straight game, Y-D extended its winning streak to seven with a 5-1 victory over Cotuit at Red Wilson Field on Friday.
Hunter Watkins (Oklahoma State) got the start for Y-D on Friday after allowing just two earned runs in 9 2/3 innings pitched during his first two starts. Jarren Advincula (California) greeted Watkins on Friday by lining a first-pitch fastball into center field before stealing a base to get into scoring position. Watkins worked out of the jam with a strikeout and a couple of lineouts to keep the Kettleers off the board.
Just as Advincula did, Brayden Dowd led off the game in the bottom half of the inning with a line-drive base hit and moved over to second on a sacrifice bunt from Cody Miller (East Tennessee State). Y-D was also unable to push the run across in the first after Chris Hacopian (Texas A&M) and Garrett Wright (Tennessee) were set down by Cotuit starter Kenton Deverman (Evansville) to end the inning.
From there, both Watkins and Deverman settled into a groove. Watkins set down the Kettleers in order during the second, third and fourth innings while collecting four strikeouts across the three frames. Meanwhile, Deverman retired 10 consecutive hitters following the leadoff single by Dowd.
Watkins was also riding a streak of 10 straight outs recorded before Camden Johnson (Wichita State) snapped it with a perfectly placed bunt down the third base line to start the fifth inning. Johnson was quickly erased when Jake Bold (Princeton) fired a dart to second base to catch him stealing.
After a couple of runners reached on a walk and an error, Watkins capped five scoreless innings by getting Advincula to chase a 90 mph fastball above the zone for his seventh strikeout of the day. Following the start, Watkins now has the lowest ERA across the Cape League among pitchers who have thrown at least 10 innings.
“The pitching has been there every single night,” Hacopian said. “It makes it easier for us hitters; we don’t have to do as much work. We can score three to six runs in a ballgame, and we can win a ballgame.”
The offense went to work against Deverman in the bottom half of the fifth when Dean Carpentier (USC) came up with a runner on first and two outs. Carpentier hit a looper that fell in front of a diving Nolan Stevens (Mississippi State) in right field, which allowed Bold to score all the way from first for a run-scoring double that gave Y-D a 1-0 lead.
Cotuit got the run back to make it 1-1 in the next half inning when Hacopian committed an error on an infield pop fly that went off his glove.
Hacopian didn’t let the error linger, however, as he led off the bottom of the sixth with a seven-pitch walk after falling behind in the count 1-2. After moving over to second on a walk drawn by Wright, Hacopian swiped third base to move just 90 feet away from giving Y-D the lead right back. Will Baker (Georgia Tech) hit a liner to the right fielder that was deep enough to score Hacopian and give Y-D a 2-1 advantage.
“When you drop a pop up and tie the ballgame up for the other team, of course when you’re leading off, you want to get that little get-back,” Hacopian said. “But I didn’t do anything different in my at-bat. I just stuck to my process, and it worked out.”
Tyler Pitzer (Mississippi State) provided a vital shutdown inning for Y-D in the seventh, racking up consecutive strikeouts after allowing a leadoff single.
In the bottom of the seventh, Y-D got some breathing room with a three-run inning to extend the lead to 5-1. Miller chopped one between the shortstop and third baseman and hustled into second with a two-run double, then Will Gasparino (Texas) delivered an RBI single for his first hit as a member of Y-D.
Drew Koenen (Virginia) and Carson Marsh (Cincinnati) held the Kettleers off the board in the eighth and ninth innings to wrap up the 5-1 win for Y-D. The Y-D bullpen was lights-out once again, now holding a 1.50 ERA during the seven-game winning streak.
With the victory, Y-D moved to 8-2-1 on the season after starting 1-2-1 and took a three-point lead over second-place Brewster in the East Division.
“It seems like we’re just coming out every day and playing good, complementary baseball,” Hacopian said. “When we came out this year and struggled in the beginning, we knew how good of a team we could be, and I think it’s showing right now.”
Y-D will seek to stretch the winning streak to eight games when it hits the road to take on Wareham for the third time this season at 6 p.m. Saturday.
