Kettleers Are On top of Western Division by 11 points with six Games to go

By Megan Kerr/Asst. Web Editor
July 30, 2006

COTUIT, MA — Cotuit beat the Brewster Whitecaps fairly easily last night at Lowell Park, 8-1, thanks to solid performances at the plate by Eric Farris (Loyola Marymount) and Notre Dame’s Brett Lilley.

Lilley went 2-4 with two RBI, while a two-run home run by Eric Farris (2-5, 2 RBI) and an RBI single by Sean Gaston (Notre Dame, 1-4, 1 RBI) put Cotuit up by three runs in the third inning. That was all the scoring Cotuit would need as Micheal Cisco (South Carolina, 4BB, 4K, 3H) was throwing another gem on the mound for the Kettleers.

Cisco, who picked up his fourth victory of the season to move to 4-0, threw seven innings for the Kettleers, only allowing one run in the fifth inning off a two-out RBI double by Matt Cusick (USC, 2 for 3, 1 RBI), but the threat ended when Cusick tried to take third base as the Kettleers had a perfect relay, including a nice tag by Lilley on a hard short hop, to get Cusick out at third to end the inning. Cisco’s defense continually helped him out, especially the sure-handed Lilley whose solid defensive play was highlighted by a nifty grab of a screaming liner hit down the third baseline by Matthew LaPorta (Florida, 0 for 3). With the Kettleers pitching and defense doing such a good job, the offence had no pressure on it, which seemed to help loosen the batters up as they continued to cause problems for Whitecaps pitching.

Cotuit had another big inning in the sixth against Brewster reliever Colt Hynes (Texas Tech, 0BB, 1 K, 6H) that started with a single by Matt Angle (Ohio State, 1 for 3). A sacrifice bunt by Tony Thomas (Florida St, 2 for 3) moved Angle over to second base, and then Lilley singled to put runners on third and second for Eric Farris. Farris then singled to bring in Angle, which brought Justin Smoak (South Carolina, 2 for 5, 1 RBI) up to the plate, who was coming off of his three homerun performance against the Falmouth Commodores and Smoak continued his hot hitting as he singled down the third baseline to bring in Lilley for his team-leading twenty-fifth RBI of the season. An error by the left-fielder then let Farris come home and Smoak move to second, giving the Kettleers an insurmountable six to one lead.

After Cotuit had added another run in the seventh off of an RBI single by Brett Lilley, which was his second RBI of the day, Dan Runzler (UC Riverside, 1BB, 2K, 0H) came on in the ninth inning to close out the game for the Kettleers. Runzler easily put down the Whitecaps in order to give the Kettleers their twenty-fifth victory of the season, moving them to 25-14. Cotuit continues to lead the Western Division, and they now travel to play the Wareham Gateman who are in second place, but only three points ahead of Falmouth, making this game very important for the Gateman’s playoff hopes.