The No. 1 seed Y-D Red Sox and No. 3 seed Harwich Mariners advanced to the Cape Cod Baseball League’s best-of-three East Division Championship Series with a trip to the Championship on the line. Read below for a roundup of each game from the series:
Game 1
The game was won when…
From the game’s first at-bat, Harwich applied pressure to Y-D. Cam Maldonado (Northeastern) set the tone with a leadoff single before Aiden Robbins (Seton Hall) also added a single and Aden Hill (Maryland) walked to load the bases.
With the bases loaded and no outs, Wilson Weber (Oregon State) ripped a 99 mph line drive up the middle. The liner hit Y-D pitcher Caleb Anderson (Wichita State), but he recovered to retire Weber at first. Still, all Mariner baserunners advanced a base and Maldonado gave them a 1-0 lead.
Harwich couldn’t get a big hit in the first inning, following a 6-for-12 performance with runners in scoring position against Chatham, but it managed to tack on two more runs with gritty at-bats.
Following Weber’s RBI, Matt Scannell (Princeton) and Cade Kurland (Florida) worked back-to-back walks, giving the Mariners a 3-0 lead. With the bases loaded and one out, Jake Ogden (Miami) beat out a potential inning-ending double play that extended Harwich’s lead to 3-0.
The Mariners added seven more runs and never trailed from there, inching one game closer to reaching their first Cape League Championship since 2019.
Stat to know: 2
After a grueling nine-inning victory over Chatham, which Mariners manager Steve Englert compared to a Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier II fight, the Mariners needed only two pitchers to win Game 1 at Merrill “Red” Wilson Field.
Versus the Anglers, Harwich used Ryan DeSanto (Penn State, three innings), Bryson Bales (Hendrix, 1 ⅔ innings), Danny Macchiarola (Holy Cross, three innings) and Kevin Zarnoch (UMass Lowell, 1 ⅓ innings). Except for Zarnoch, it would’ve been unlikely to see Englert turn to any of the arms he used yesterday.
Following Justin Mitrovich (Elon) and Jack Bowery’s (Northeastern) combined nine innings of two-run ball, Englert will have a fresh bullpen as the Mariners look to seal the series at Whitehouse Field on Thursday. On the other hand, Red Sox manager Scott Pickler needed to use five pitchers to get through Game 1.
“It’s so big because now we get a fresh bullpen tomorrow,” Englert said. “You gotta get quality starts out of your guys to start the game and eat some innings for you so you can save your bullpen. It’s tough, when you get to this part of the season it’s an extremely tough road, and when you use just a couple of guys, it’s very beneficial.”
Player of the game: Wilson Weber
Following a two-RBI performance versus Chatham, Weber stayed hot against Y-D, notching a game-high three RBI while going 2-for-5.
Y-D cut into Harwich’s lead in the middle innings, making it a 3-2 game heading into the sixth. The Mariners added four runs in that frame, including Weber’s second RBI. With runners on the corners and two outs, Weber smacked a single into left field, scoring Maldonado to give Harwich a 7-2 lead.
In his next at-bat in the eighth inning, Weber lined a 2-1 pitch into center field, scoring Sam McNulty to extend the Mariner lead to 8-2. Through two playoff games, Weber is 4-for-9 with a league-leading five RBI.
“He’s tremendous,” Englert said of Weber. “That was a great pickup for us a few weeks ago.”
Quote of the night:
“That was good to jump out at them early,” Englert said. “You have to stay on top of these guys because their offense is extremely dangerous. We had some really, really disciplined at-bats and that set the tone for the day.”
Game 2
The game was won when…
Red Sox starter Will Jones (Northeastern) worked back-to-back 1-2-3 frames in the second and third innings after allowing a run in the first, appearing to settle into just his second Cape League game. Leading off the bottom of the fourth, with Y-D still trailing 1-0, the left-hander struck out Kurland for his seventh consecutive out.
Jones then got ahead of Weber 0-2, but couldn’t put the designated hitter away. Jones tried elevating a put-away pitch after missing his third delivery underneath the zone, but Weber punished it into left field for a double. Against the ensuing batter, Hill, Weber again got ahead in the count 1-2 but surrendered a walk after missing out of the zone on his next three pitches.
Facing Daniel Dickinson (LSU) with runners on first and second, Weber quickly got ahead in the count 0-2. Yet, Jones again failed to find a put-away pitch, missing high on his third delivery before plunking Dickinson to load the bases.
Macon Winslow (Duke) — who didn’t appear in Harwich’s first two playoff games — then stepped up to the plate. The catcher laced a 97 mph line drive down the left field line on the first pitch he saw. This allowed Weber and Hill to score easily, while Dickinson turned on the jets to score from first. The Mariners commanded a 4-0 lead on Winslow’s stand-up double, never looking back en route to their 5-1 win.
“That was a huge hit from Macon,” Englert said. “He works hard every day and he goes about his business.”
Stat to know: 15
In an age where high velocity, high spin and high strikeout rate pitchers are valued most, Harwich starter Donovan Burke (James Madison) is a throwback-style pitcher. The sinker-balling left-hander instead relies on attacking the zone with good command, trusting the defense behind him.
Throughout the first inning, it was well-documented that Burke would stick with that same philosophy. He notched a 1-2-3 top of the first inning, needing just six pitches. The best part for the left-hander was all three balls the Red Sox put in play stayed on the ground, allowing his defense to make routine plays on ground balls.
The first inning was the blueprint for Burke’s success: attack the zone and force Y-D to hit weak ground balls. Against Y-D, whose .758 regular season OPS led the East Division, Burke corralled 15 outs from ground balls. By keeping the ball on the ground, the left-hander mitigated the Red Sox’s power, only surrendering two extra-base hits.
“Everyone chases the high velo these days, but give me the pitch ability guys. Just goes out, attacks the zone, soft contact, no biggie, he was tremendous,” Englert said of Burke.
Player of the game: Donovan Burke
Fresh off a game where Englert only needed two pitchers to defeat the Red Sox, it looked like the skipper would only need Burke to complete the sweep. After pitching eight shutout innings, the left-hander returned to the mound in the ninth.
Despite failing to record an out and surrendering his first run, Burke did more than enough to get the ball to Zarnoch, Harwich’s closer. Burke’s 8.0+ inning start was further than he had ever gone throughout his five-year career at James Madison, besting his 7 ⅔ innings versus Niagara on March 12, 2024.
With five years of Division I experience, Englert trusted Burke to take Harwich as far as possible to defeat Y-D. As a result, the Mariners clinched their first Cape League Championship appearance in five years.
“We just rode him like a friggin’ rented mule,” Englert said of Burke. “What an outstanding effort, I can’t say enough good things about that kid.”
Quote of the night:
“Everybody counted us out,” Englert said. “We were down in the cellar there, we had a 2-18 run or whatever. But I said, in the last eight games of the year, just leave it all on the table. And they did. We won six of our last eight and now we're going to the championship. It's awesome.”
(Photograph by Kyndall Williams)
