The Red Sox clung to a one-run lead in the bottom of the eighth inning when runners on first and second set the stage for Ethan Petry (South Carolina). Petry got a hanging curveball in the middle of the zone and watched it sail over the left field fence before he jogged around second base pumping his arm up and down like a truck driver blaring his horn.

“I saw Christian Moore do it when we played Tennessee and I was like, ‘that's the coolest celebration ever,’” Petry said.

Petry’s three-run, 396-foot blast not only allowed him to utilize that celebration for the second time in the game but extended the Y-D lead to 5-1 and gave the South Carolina slugger five RBI.

Petry was responsible for producing all five of the Red Sox's runs with a two-run homer in the fourth that traveled 420 feet and the three-run dagger in the eighth. Petry leads the Cape League with a .754 slugging percentage, a 1.254 OPS and is second in on-base percentage at a .500 mark in just 57 at-bats.

After homering in two of his first three games, Petry went 10 consecutive games without a home run and went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts in that 10th and final game against Brewster. Petry solicited the advice of veteran head coach Scott Pickler, who instructed the 6-foot-4 slugger about staying relaxed in the batter's box. The message clicked as Petry has four home runs in the last five games.

“I'm just trying to be as early as I can with my timing and seeing so many arms every single day, you get the gist of everything,” Petry said. “You get used to seeing certain pitches where they start and at the end of the day, you gotta stay as calm as you can in the box. Pick has been preaching that to me with staying nice and loose instead of being so jerky. When I start getting jerky and I start trying to hit a home run, that’s when I'm in really big trouble at the plate and you saw that against Brewster this year when I had three punchouts.”

Petry’s prolific power is what allowed him to be a 2023 Golden Spikes Award semifinalist and break the South Carolina freshman home run record held by Justin Smoak that same season. After his sophomore season this spring saw his strikeout rate increase, Petry came to the Cape League looking to minimize his chase rate and cut down on the swing and miss.

He’s accomplished that goal with 11 walks to 11 strikeouts and has just one strikeout in the last five games. Petry ranks third in the Cape League with a .368 batting average and is tied for fourth with six home runs. Pickler recognized this altered approach and said, “He was just trying to do too much and today it was direct. When he tries to lift the ball, he gets in trouble when he gets through the ball, he’s worked hard about staying through the ball.”

Petry utilizes a similar right-handed stance to another perennial power hitter and 2008 American League Rookie of the Year, Evan Longoria. Petry’s stance is comprised of a primarily straight-up stance with a slight bend in his back right leg.

Much like Sammy Sosa, Petry ignites his powerful swing with a simple toe-tap with his left foot and hoists that same leg a foot off the ground before getting full extension with his hands and quickly rotating the hips to turn on the ball.

Petry’s toe-tap came as a result of a slump during fall ball before his recording-breaking freshman campaign. Petry said he consulted South Carolina associate head coach Montee Lee, who gave the Land O’ Lakes, Florida, product a new philosophy to hitting. The small mechanical adjustment would propel Petry’s career.

“I've had that since my freshman year,” Petry said. “It actually helped me figure out how to time up collegiate pitching. I struggled in the fall my freshman year and I couldn't catch up to the velocity because I had a pretty high leg kick, and all of sudden, coach Monte Lee said, ‘try this toe tap,’ and I tried it and I was able to get to fastballs that are 95 up in the zone.”

Petry’s pair of home runs in Y-D’s 5-1 win over Harwich came against a left-hander and a right-hander as Donovan Burke (James Madison) and Sam Tookoian (Ole Miss) tried to slide breaking balls by him.

Both home runs came on breaking balls either down and in or over the heart of the plate, which is where Petry prefers pitches. In an era of increased strikeout rates from hitters, a focus on exit velocity and launch angle, Petry said he’s unlike most right-handed hitters because of his ability to mash right-handed pitching.

“The funny thing about that is I have reverse splits,” Petry said. “I'm better against right-handed pitching than I am against left-handed pitching, so I've been working on getting my left-handed swings better.”

Photo by Sophie Solarino