Kettleers Even Record at 1-1-1 With Win Over Falmouth
By Megan Kerr, Asst. Web Editor
June 18, 2005
LOWELL PARK, COTUIT – Josh Johnson (Mississippi State) picked up his and the Kettleers’ first win of 2005 by pitching 3 1/3 strong innings for Cotuit in relief of Jeff Manship (Notre Dame) Saturday night, striking out three and giving the Kettleers their first win of the season.
Though the Falmouth Commodores struck first with a run in the top of the second off of Manship (six strikeouts and no walks), Cotuit responded in the bottom of the third and led from that point on. Scoring eight runs over nine innings, the bats of the Kettleers paved the way for Cotuit’s first win and gave Daniel Merkinlger (Seton Hall) of the Commodores his first loss of the season.
Both starting pitchers struggled in the first inning, but were able to escape with no runs scored after having men on third with only one out. Manship though, wasn’t as lucky in the second when he was touched by the Commodores for one run. After having given up a one out single to Brian Bocock (Stetson, 1 for four batting), it appeared Manship was going to get Bocock out when he caught him taking too big of a lead off of first base and threw over to the first baseman.
The resulting pickle should have been the second out, but the second baseman tried to run him down, which allowed Bocock to make it back to first.One steal and one single later, Brian scored, but what could have been a disastrous mistake instead sparked the Kettleers, which was seen the next inning when they overtook the Commodores.
Lino Mariot (Bloomfield, 2 for 4 batting) lead off the bottom of the third with a single, and then Emeel Salem (Alabama, 0 for 2 batting) was hit by a pitch to put runners on first and second with nobody out. After a double steal by Mariot and Salem, Shane Jordan (Stetson, 2 RBI) bunted in the first Cotuit run.
With runners on first and third, Todd Davison (Delaware, 3 RBI) laid down a sacrifice bunt to put Cotuit ahead, and then with one out, Bryan Harris (LSU, 1 RBI) hit a sacrifice fly to get Jordan home. At the end of the inning, Cotuit now led three to one and from that point forward they never relinquished that lead.
Cotuit scored two more runs in the fourth with RBI from Shane Jordan and Todd Davison, putting the Kettlers in a comfortable situation. The Kettleers completely dominated from the third inning on with their hot hitting and excellent pitching. The only other run that Falmouth was able to score occured in the top of the sixth off of Josh Johnson when Mike Ambort (Lamar, 1 RBI) doubled in a run with one out. Cotuit added three more runs over the next two inning, which put the Commodores in a desperate situation coming into the ninth inning. There would be no come back this time, for Chris Toneguzzi (Purdue, 1 strikeout) put the Commodores down in order in top of the ninth.
With the first win under their belt, the Kettleers will look to continue their hot hitting and winning ways when they head over to play in Hyannis tommorow.