Wareham, Mass. 一 The Gatemen returned home from a rough two-game road trip needing to make a statement to the rest of the Cape League in the most crucial time of the summer.
What a statement they made.
Wareham notched 14 runs on nine hits and nine walks in its best offensive performance of the summer: topping its double-digit performance in Falmouth a month ago. Seven different Gatemen tallied base knocks against the Commodores, including a hit from every player in the fifth through ninth spots on the lineup card, and forced their starter to exit his CCBL debut after just 1.1 innings of work.
Throughout the summer the Gatemen have put together strong offensive performances that fell just short of capturing a win. Early-game struggles at the plate or attempting to figure out top arms has plagued Wareham, but tonight it put everything together as the full lineup was firing on all cylinders.
“That was a fun game to be a part of. Obviously we had a game plan, stuck with it. We're patient,” Gatemen manager Ryan Smyth said. “Drew a bunch of walks, a couple hit by pitches, and then came up with some really big two out hits. Henry (Henry DiGiorgio, Northeastern) had two of them, and that was the name of the game: two-out hitting, which we did for a while that one inning.”
Falmouth’s first three pitchers walked nine Wareham batters in just three frames: the Gatemen waited on their pitch, and gladly accepted the free pass if it didn’t end up coming. Wareham stayed steady in the full-count situations, but most of its walks came from four-pitch or five-pitch plate appearances. The first pitch never felt like a necessity to offer at, in fact it became a tool for hitters to stay back and better learn the arsenal of the man on the mound.
As much as the free pass was given to Wareham, it also didn’t strike out much on the night: only three K’s compared to six Gatemen batters reaching from a walk.
“They were digging themselves a little bit of a hole with their pitching and getting behind in counts and not being competitive in the zone, so it made it a little easier for our hitters to kind of just dial in on one pitch, one spot, and get a good A swing off when when that pitch did come. So I think that was something we did really well tonight,” Smyth said. Took the free passes when they gave it to us, and then cashing in on some hits when they threw it over the middle.”
The offense was clearly the headliner from Saturday night’s action at Spillane Field: Wareham’s 14 runs allowed for its first run-rule victory of the summer. But the defense stood tall as well, holding the CCBL’s hit leaders to just two runs on the night.
“When you have a star like Jordan (Jordan Stephens, South Carolina) he dominated them last time, and it was shortened because of the rain,” Smyth said. And even tonight, it got a little short just because we hit for a half hour. So we didn't want to send him back out there. It was more about his health and than anything else, but it was really, really good to see you know the start that Jordan gave us and able to jump out to a lead and didn't look back from there.”
Smyth even believes that Stephens, the Gatemen’s strikeout leader at 27 on the summer, could even return for another start due to the early exit. Winning affects everything: it saves bullpen arms, it keeps clubhouse morale up and brings that belief for a late-summer push.
“We're still in this fight. Didn't make it easy on ourselves going forward, but one game at a time and one win at a time going forward,” Smyth said. “And who knows? We could have a really cool story here if we do something cool this week.”
