Five Harwich runs in the first two innings proved to be insurmountable for Y-D on Thursday, as the team dropped their fifth straight home game in a 10-2 defeat to the Mariners.
Y-D entered Thursday’s game coming off consecutive victories for the first time in July after winning a pair of road matchups against Hyannis and Cotuit to reclaim its spot atop the Cape League standings. Meanwhile, Harwich was in desperate need of a win following losses in four of its last five games, dropping the team to a tie for last place in the East Division.
The Mariners came out swinging against Noah Bentley (Weatherford), who was making his first start of the summer for Y-D. Tanner Marsh (Liberty) led off the game with a liner into center field for a base hit, and Aiden Robbins (Texas) launched a fastball to the opposite field for a two-run homer to give Harwich a 2-0 lead before an out was recorded.
After Bentley retired the next three hitters, Yomar Carreras (Rutgers) jumped on the first pitch from Matthew Heiberger (Alabama) in the bottom half of the inning and grounded it up the middle for a leadoff single. The base knock marked the second consecutive night where Carreras attacked the first pitch and led off with a hit.
Heiberger also ran into some immediate trouble in his first start of the summer when he hit Armando Briseño (Cal State Fullerton) with his second pitch of the game to put runners at second and first with no outs. Y-D was unable to cash in on the opportunity, as the following three batters were set down by Heiberger to end the inning.
Harwich continued to pounce on Bentley in the second inning when Sam Harris (Duke) and Trey Wells (Rutgers) had two consecutive hits that both had an exit velocity over 100 MPH. Shintaro Inoue (Kansas State) followed that up by driving an 89 MPH fastball 379 feet over the wall in left-center field for a three-run blast to put Harwich ahead 5-0 early.
Ty Bayer (Kennesaw State) entered the game for Y-D in the third inning and worked into an instant jam by allowing a double to Matt Conte (Wake Forest) and a couple of walks to load the bases with no outs. Bayer limited the damage well, only allowing one run on a sacrifice fly to make it 6-0 Harwich.
The Mariners kept things rolling in the fourth inning with two more runs to extend their lead to eight. Maddox Molony (Oregon) hit a blooper just beyond the reach of Briseño at shortstop to score a run, and Dee Kennedy (Kansas State) scorched a grounder off the glove of Chris Hacopian (Texas A&M) at third base for an RBI single to make it 8-0.
After Justin Lee (UCLA) worked the first scoreless frame of the day for the Y-D pitching staff, the Y-D offense started to show some life in the fifth inning when Garrett Wright (Tennessee) got hit by a pitch and Dean Carpentier (USC) beat out an infield single. Wright came in to score on a wild pitch from Heiberger, making it 8-1 Harwich with runners at the corners and still no outs.
Briseño stayed hot at the plate, hitting a ground ball off the glove of Molony at third base for an RBI single to cut Y-D’s deficit to 8-2. The run-scoring single gave Briseño his sixth hit and third RBI in his past two starts after a four-hit night against Hyannis on Tuesday.
“Honestly, I’m just trying to see the ball, hit the ball and let the next guy do his job,” Briseño said. “I’m just trying to keep it simple.”
Y-D’s rally came to a halt when Carreras was thrown out at third base trying to pull off a double steal. Hacopian proceeded to line out to end the inning, which was the third time Hacopian hit a ball over 95 MPH that resulted in an out during the game.
Heiberger finished off six strong innings with six strikeouts and no walks allowed in his first start of the year. The Mariners gave him even more support with two runs in the seventh inning to take a commanding 10-2 lead.
One Y-D pitcher who was able to keep Harwich’s bats in check was Carpentier, who made his debut on the mound in the eighth inning. Carpentier, who is also Y-D’s active leader in home runs, recorded two strikeouts on his way to a scoreless frame.
Adam Arther (Kansas State) was dominant out of the Harwich bullpen, tossing three hitless innings with five strikeouts to cap off the 10-2 victory. With the loss, Y-D drops to 15-10-2 on the season; however, the team is still in first place due to Brewster also losing on Thursday.
“The beautiful thing about baseball is that we’ll have another one tomorrow,” Briseño said. “We can’t dwell on it too much and just [need to] get ready to compete tomorrow.”
Y-D will look to head into the All-Star Break on a high note when it travels to play Orleans at 6:30 p.m. on Friday.
