Kettleers Stay on Top of Western Division with 5-3 Win Over Hyannis

By Megan Kerr
July 3, 2006

HYANNIS, MA — In a back-and-forth game against Hyannis , Cotuit was able to pull out the game as it scored two runs in the ninth to go ahead for good in a 5-3 victory. Both teams lost leads at one point in the game, making it so that the result of the game was in doubt till the very end. Hyannis struck first against Cotuit starter James Simmons ( Cal St Riverside , 0BB, 3 K, 7 H), who added to his team leading strikeouts as he now has seventeen on the season. Simmons scoreless streak ended with the sacrifice fly by James Darnell (South Carolina, 0 for 4, 1 RBI) in the second innings, and then Ryan Flaherty (Vanderbilt, 2 for 4, 1 RBI) to put the Mets up by two, making it so the Kettleers would have to come back in order to avoid their first back-back loss of the season. Cotuit was more than up to the task though as they begun their rally in the top of the fifth inning.

Kyle Russell ( Texas , 1 for 3) started the rally by singling to get on base, and then, two errors in row, by the first baseman and a bad throw by the right fielder, allowed him to score to bring Cotuit within one run of the Mets. Sean Gaston (Notre Dame, 1 for 3, 1 RBI), who had reached base on the error by the first baseman, then scored on a fielders choice to tie the game up. Cotuit continued to press the attack against starter Josh Collmenter (Central Michigan, 2 BB, 6 K, 4 H), causing Hyannis to bring in reliever Gary Lee (So. Carolina Aiken, 0 BB, 2 K, 1 H) to try prevent Cotuit from pulling ahead. It appeared that Lee was going to be successful as he struck out the first two batters he faced, but Gaston singled to bring in Justin Smoak (South Carolina, 0 for 2) to give the Kettleers their first lead of the game. Hyannis wasn’t done though, as in the bottom of the sixth they tied up the game off of Sean O’Brien’s (Virginia Tech, 3 for 4, 1 RBI) single, setting up another ninth inning win for the Kettleers.

After Russell was thrown out of the game in the seventh inning as he apparently left the bench to early to go to his position after a questionable third out call by the umpire, Cotuit entered the ninth inning looking to go ahead for good with Russell’s replacement Tony Tucker (Florida State, 1 for 1) up first. Tucker singled and then moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Gaston. Eric Farris (Loyola Marymount, 3 for 4, 1 RBI) then singled to bring in Tucker and put the Kettleers up for good. After Jeff Rea ( Mississippi State , 1 for 5, 1 RBI) singled to provide another insurance run, Cotuit reliever Cory Gearrin (Young Harris, 1 BB, 2 K, 2 H) picked up his first victory of the season by putting down the Met attack one-two-three in the bottom of the ninth.