By Katie Vieth
June 17, 2004

BOURNE — After a promising pre-season exhibition game against the Columbus All-Americans, Kettleer fans seemed hopeful heading on the road to see Cotuit take on the Bourne Braves at Coady Field.

Those hopes were horribly smashed.

The Kettleers would have four straight 1-2-3 innings before getting on base. Calvin Beamon would walk on a 3-2 count, advance to second on a Chase Headley single, and come home on an error.

Bourne would score two on the first, one in the second, five in the third, and six in the seventh to make the score 14-1.

A rather unfortunate rally began when the first batter of the Bourne half of the inning, Steve Caravati, was hit by a pitch on a 2-2 count. Tim Mascia would the fly out to third.

Let the merry-go-round begin.

The next two batters would be walked, then a pop out to second, then another walk, another hit batsman, a double, a single, then finally a fly out to right field. That’s ten batters in an inning. That’s not good.

We would then go on to set a record … of hit batters in a game–five.

Bryan Harris would go 2-4 (along with Chase Headley), but the enthusiasm that was in the exhibition game (the game many hoped would be an auspicious sign of games to come) was gone.

Just gone.

So on to next game, and hopefully a happier ending.