Man did that tune change quickly.
The Wareham Gatemen (21-16-1) snapped a five-game skid in historic fashion Friday night. In their penultimate home game of the season, the Gatemen took down Cotuit 10-9 in an improbable eight-run comeback – in walk-off style too.
It was the second biggest comeback victory in Cape League history, and the largest in 43 years when Y-D beat Orleans 12-10 after being down 9-1 on June 28, 1981.
Wareham went down 8-0 to Cotuit by the top of the third inning. The Kettleers smattered 14 of their eventual 18 hits (season-high) in those first three innings, and Wareham looked poised for a sixth straight loss.
That was a complete fallacy of our perception.
The comeback began with two runs on just one hit in the bottom of the third. Then the bats exploded in the fourth, crossing off four more runs on a trio of knocks – the same amount of hits Wareham got in the entirety of their recent loss to Chatham on Thursday.
Wareham would spray three more runs by the ninth to tie it 9-9. After Sam Mettert (St. John’s) finished a solid six-pitcher, seven and 2/3 inning bullpen effort with a scoreless top of the ninth, it was up to the offense to complete the journey.
Murf Gray (Fresno State) singled, Jacob Jarrell (Clemson) singled, and Reese Chapman (Tennessee) reached on a fielder’s choice. With the bases loaded and no outs, Eli Putnam (Davidson) stepped up and walked in the winning run.
With that, the Gatemen showered themselves in Gatorade and find themselves dancing into their final road game of the regular season. And it’s another big West division test: The Hyannis Harbor Hawks (22-14-2).
Wareham is 1.5 GB Hyannis in the West standings, Wareham third and Hyannis first. With two games left in the regular season, this game is a matter of trying to jump into an advantageous position for the postseason. Only the top two seeds of each division get home field advantage in the first round of the postseason which begins on August 6.
Hyannis is 6-3-1 in their last 10 games and leads the season-series 3-1 versus Wareham this summer, outscoring them 41-30 in their four meetings. Wareham is also 0-1 at McKeon Park this year.
But we’ve seen that Wareham can break trends pretty quickly.
Starting Pitchers
Following a strong bullpen effort in Friday’s win, Manager Ryan Smyth gives the nod to Darin Horn (Coastal Carolina) to continue the positive trend. The 6-foot-4 right-hander has a 3.77 ERA in his five starts thus far with 14 and 1/3 innings to his credit.
It’ll be a bounce-back opportunity for him, though. He had allowed just one run in his first four starts until his most recent appearance. His worst start of the year was his most recent – and it was against Hyannis.
In the two West division heavyweight’s most recent meeting – a 15-8 Hyannis win at Spillane Field – Horn allowed five earned runs on four hits and three walks in just 1 and 1/3 innings. It’s the most hits he’s allowed in a start this summer and will look to manage the baserunners better in his final regular season start.
Hyannis Manager Mitch Karraker gives his last home regular season start to Aaron Mishoulam (Michigan State). The towering 6-foot-7 right-handed reliever has eight appearances this season, but this will be hist first start.
His longest outing of the year is three innings (twice). In his last outing, Mishoulam allowed an earned run in two frames versus Falmouth. In 13 and 2/3 innings Mishoulam mans a 5.27 ERA this year.
He doesn’t allow many hits, averaging just shy of two hits allowed per appearance. We’ll see how Mishoulam ages with more innings in his first start of the summer Saturday night.
Players to Watch
Wareham’s offense was aging like milk until yesterday. Eli Putnam was the catalyst of their newfound spark. On top of his walk-off walk in Friday’s historic win, he went 2-for-4 with three RBI.
He’s now reached base safely in nine of his last ten games and is slashing .364/.447/.606 since July 20. His .523 slugging percentage is good for third in the league and has the league’s sixth best OPS (.894) -- both team-leads.
The one thing missing in the past couple of games for him are his patented extra-base hits. He hasn’t hit for extra-bases since July 31 at Bourne, when he hit a homer for the second game in a row. He’s also hitting .400 on Saturday contests this year. Once could say he is due.
Hyannis’ Michael Dattalo (Dallas Baptist) has had a hot start to August. He’s hitting 5-for-8 in his two games so far, which is just a blip of a much larger hot streak he’s on right now. After going 2-for-3 in Friday’s tie to Bourne, Dattalo is now riding a four-game hitting streak.
He also has hits in seven of his last ten games. The hit-streak started with a 2-for-5, six RBI day last time he saw Wareham in their 15-8 triumph over the Gatemen back on July 29. He’s slashing – since then. He’s slashing .471/.500/.529 since then.
Both pitchers have a batter or two to fear when taking the bump in their final meeting in the 2024 regular season Saturday night.
You can watch the live broadcast as well as other Gatemen content on the Gatemen Baseball Network YouTube channel HERE.
The Gatemen Baseball Network pregame show will go live at 5:45 p.m. ahead of a 6 p.m. first pitch at McKeon Field.
Putnam celebrating walk off win with reporter Madison Walker on August 2, 2024 at Spillane Field. Photo shot by Kyler Armstrong.
