The clock struck midnight on Y-D’s Cinderella run in the Cape League postseason on Tuesday, as Bourne completed the Championship Series sweep, taking down Y-D, 19-2, to win the Cape League title in convincing fashion.
After Bourne’s 5-3 victory in the opening game of the series on Monday, the teams went to Red Wilson Field on Tuesday as Y-D tried to keep its season alive in front of its home crowd. The Braves had other plans, exploding for multiple runs in five separate innings on their way to the dominant win. Despite the result, Y-D infielder Chris Hacopian (Texas A&M) expressed his gratitude for the fan base showing its support at Red Wilson Field throughout the summer.
“[The fans] showed out all the time,” Hacopian said. “Even tonight when the game got out of hand, a lot of them stuck around and showed their support towards the end. It’s really cool to be part of a Dennis-Yarmouth family.”
Y-D had its ace, Brady Hamilton (Wichita State), on the mound in Game 2 of the Championship Series, making his final start of the summer after having a minuscule 1.48 ERA during the regular season.
Hamilton dealt with some early trouble in the first inning when a missed catch error by Dean Carpentier (USC) at first base on a potential double play ball put a runner on second with one out. Bourne took advantage of the defensive miscue, as Braden Holcomb (Vanderbilt) looped a sinker into center field for an RBI single to give the Braves a 1-0 lead.
Y-D struck back right away in the bottom of the first when Jayce Tharnish (Kentucky) chopped a first-pitch fastball from Folger Boaz (North Carolina) over Holcomb’s head at third base for a leadoff single. Two batters later, Hacopian hit a soft grounder to Holcomb, who made a wild throw to first base to put runners at second and third with one out.
Y-D took advantage of the scoring chance, as Armando Briseño (Cal State Fullerton) hit an RBI groundout and Ryan Niedzwiedz (Southern Illinois-Edwardsville) lined a fastball down the right field line for a run-scoring single to put Y-D ahead 2-1.
That would be the last time all day that Y-D held a lead, as Bourne came back in the second inning with two runs of its own to regain a 3-2 advantage. After a pair of singles and a hit-by-pitch loaded the bases with no outs, Ryan Cooney (Oregon) and Gavin Kelly (West Virginia) brought in runs with groundouts to give the Braves the lead.
With one out and a runner on first base in the fourth inning, Y-D manager Scott Pickler made the decision to turn to Michael Malki (Cal Baptist) out of his bullpen. Control issues were the story of the day for Hamilton in his 3 1/3 innings of work, as he threw only 37 strikes in 72 pitches and walked three hitters.
Free passes continued to be an issue for the entire Y-D pitching staff when Malki walked Jon LeGrande (St. John’s), and Kelly made him pay by driving a curveball down the left field line for a two-run double to make it 5-2 Bourne. Malki ended up walking three more hitters in the inning, with one bringing in a run to give Bourne a 6-2 lead.
Bourne started to really pull away against Ryder Brooks (UC Irvine) in the fifth inning, adding five more runs to make it an 11-2 ballgame. The highlights of the inning were a couple of blasts into the trees by Mark Quatrani (Notre Dame) and Kelly. Prior to the two homers, Y-D had only allowed one home run in the entire postseason, which came in Game 1 of the Division Series against Orleans.
On the pitching side for Bourne, Boaz was dominant after the shaky first inning, tossing six innings with just one earned run allowed and six strikeouts.
One of the few Y-D hitters to have success against Boaz was Hacopian, who collected two singles to finish his postseason with a .400 batting average. Hacopian was one of just three position players in Y-D’s Game 2 lineup that was on the Opening Day roster, capping off his impressive summer in a big way during the playoffs.
“I think when you make a commitment to the team, there’s something to be said about honoring that and sticking it out all summer,” Hacopian said. “Honestly, I love baseball, and I love being out here, and it’s fun, and you get coaches who have been around the game for so long. The [Picklers], the amount of stuff I’ve learned from them has been unbelievable.”
The Braves put together comfortable at-bats the rest of the night, scoring four runs in both the sixth and eighth innings to extend their already commanding lead. Kelly added another run-scoring double in the sixth inning to give him a whopping six RBIs for the game. The final run of the day was tacked on by Aidan Paradine (Northwest Florida State JC), who lined an RBI single up the middle to make it 19-2 Bourne in the eighth inning.
Jack Brown (Louisville) came in for Bourne in the ninth inning, slamming the door with a scoreless frame to give the Braves their third Cape League championship in the past four years and fifth in team history. LeGrande was named the 2025 Cape League Postseason MVP, as he went 12-for-27 at the plate with five doubles and five RBIs during the playoffs. The 17-run victory was the third-largest run differential in Cape League postseason history, according to league historian Mike Richard.
Even with the way that the season ended, Y-D had countless memorable moments throughout the summer, including a nine-game winning streak and returning to the Cape League Championship for the first time in nine years as the fourth seed in the East Division. For Hacopian, this journey and the relationships that have been built will be remembered for a lifetime.
“You get coaches that you’ll have for the rest of your life just to talk to about the game, about life, about everything,” Hacopian said. “We’re going to look back and be very thankful and grateful for this experience, and I know this is going to be one of the best summers of my life.”
