Carson Ballard (Georgia Tech) matched the most strikeouts in a single game on the Cape this summer with 10 during 5 ⅔ innings and Anthony Martinez (UC Irvine) had a two-run double in the ninth as Yarmouth-Dennis and Brewster tied, 3-3, on Tuesday at Red Wilson Field.
Ballard made his third start of the summer and entered with 13 hits allowed in 7 ⅓ innings. The right-hander registered the second-longest outing of his collegiate career and recorded his career high in strikeouts. Ballard tossed five scoreless innings before three unearned runs came across in the sixth.
Y-D still leads the season series, 2-0-2, against Brewster but was held scoreless from the fourth to ninth. Walks from Ethan Petry (South Carolina) and Michael Ball (Nevada) in the bottom of the ninth set the stage for Martinez, who cleared the bases with the Red Sox down to their final out.
The Red Sox hit 2-for-12 with runners in scoring position and left 12 men on base, including runners on first and second with no outs in the seventh. RJ Austin (Vanderbilt) had an RBI double and has a hit in 12 of the 15 games he’s played in as Y-D moved to 18-9-4 with 40 points while Brewster is 12-17-2 with 26 points.
The Red Sox clinched a playoff spot with their tie and a Harwich loss as Y-D extended its lead in the East Division to eight points over Chatham who fell 9-2 to Falmouth. Cotuit surpassed Y-D for the overall Cape League lead with its 6-2 win as the former has 41 points and a one-point advantage.
Y-D has four ties in its last 10 games and has scored in the final inning in three of the four ties, including an Easton Carmichael (Oklahoma) solo home run in the last meeting between Y-D and Brewster which ended 2-2. The Red Sox moved to 10-3-2 against East Division opponents.
Brewster’s 3-4-5 hitters of Kaeden Kent (Texas A&M), Daniel Cuvet (Miami) and Nick Dumesnil (Cal Baptist) combined to go 5-for-11 as Cuvet and Dumesnil each tallied an RBI. Despite their stretch of success, Red Sox pitchers combined for 16 strikeouts, which equals their single-game high, and allowed five or fewer runs in a game for the 21st time this season.
Right-hander Luke Guth (Vanderbilt) made his fourth start with the Whitecaps and recorded his second-longest outing of the summer. Guth stranded runners on the corners in the third and left Y-D runners on second and third in the fourth. He allowed one run on four hits and tallied three strikeouts.
Y-D scored first in the bottom of the third inning when Jackson Chirello (Kennesaw State) reached second with no outs after a single and an error from Kent. Gavin Gallaher (North Carolina) executed a sacrifice bunt and Austin roped his sixth double of the summer off the left field fence to score Chirello from third and give Y-D a 1-0 lead. Y-D is now 13-2-2 when scoring first.
The Whitecaps had just two hits entering the top of the sixth before scoring three unearned runs with two outs. Cuvet and Dumesnil each brought home a run before Aiden Moffett (Texas) relieved Ballard. Cuvet scored on a wild pitch but Moffett stranded a runner on third to hold the score at 3-1.
Colby Frieda (Kentucky) escaped a trio of jams from the fifth to the seventh inning as Y-D remained scoreless. Frieda left a runner on second in the fifth, stranded a pair in the sixth and retired three consecutive hitters after letting runners on first and second with no outs in the seventh.
Justin Lee (UCLA) went three scoreless innings out of the bullpen and allowed just two base runners with five strikeouts. His consistency allowed Y-D to climb back into the game, which it did in the ninth. The Red Sox have scored 13 runs in the final frame as Martinez evened the score as sunlight dwindled.
Photo by Sophie Solarino
