The Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox defeated the Orleans Firebirds 4-1 on Sunday to improve to a 16-2-1 record this season. Y-D’s pitchers controlled Orleans’ offense thanks to Taylor Penn (Arizona State University), Dimitri Angelakos (Georgia Tech), and Peyton Rodgers (University of California-Irvine). The pitching trio’s performance was complemented by a two-hit game and timely home run by Y-D catcher Mateo Serna.
Penn started on the mound, where he completed four full innings. He finished with five strikeouts, three of which were recorded in the first inning to strike out the side. He also allowed only two hits with one earned run and two walks. Now, his ERA is 2.77.
Penn gave Y-D’s sideline reporter Olivia Lambert, insight into how he stays calm during outings with base traffic, like this one.
“It’s a lot easier when you’re having confidence in everyone that’s behind you,” said Penn.
Although Penn “didn’t really have feel of the slider” in this outing, the rest of his pitches felt comfortable, he said.
In the fifth inning, Angelakos replaced Penn on the mound. Over 2 and ⅓ innings, he only allowed three hits and recorded two punch outs. Then, Rodgers came in with a similarly impressive performance where he only allowed one hit across 2 and ⅔ innings. The two aces are prime assets of the Y-D rotation with 0.00 and 0.50 ERAs, respectively.
To support its pitching, Y-D’s bats were cracking throughout the lineup, with six of the nine batters recording one hit. Among those bats was Serna, who was Sunday’s only batter with a multi-hit game.
After grounding out to second baseman Johnathan Gomez (Fairleigh Dickinson) in his first at-bat, Serna hit a leadoff double to right-field to begin the fifth inning. This was momentous for Y-D, as Serna was soon batted in on an infield single from Dante Vachini (Cal Poly).
Then came Serna’s solo home run in the bottom of the seventh to increase Y-D’s lead to 3-1.
“It felt good that we were able to get a run in,” said Serna. “I wanted to do something.”
This home run was a visual of Serna’s hard work paying off; before Sunday’s game, Serna came to Red Wilson field early to practice hitting high fastballs.
“I was struggling a bit, so that’s what I was working on,” he said.
So, it was only fitting when Serna’s home run was off of a high fastball.
“It felt great that I was able to feel like my work was paying off,” said Serna.
The catcher is consistently hitting a hot bat one month into the season with a .351 batting average, .442 on-base percentage, and a .676 slugging percentage. This translates to a 1.118 OPS, which ranks second on the team behind Lucas Franco (Texas Christian University).
Y-D will compete again on Wednesday, at home, against the Brewster Whitecaps at 5:00 pm.
