story by Steve McCarthy
August 7, 2009
“I’ve never been in a ‘one-and-done’ when you’ve played a complete season scenario,” Roberts said. “It’s not fun. It’s not enjoyable. I think it’s very difficult on everybody. You use pitching that now you cannot use in the two out of three.”
Grimm blew a mid 90’s velocity fastball by batters and mixed it with an effective curveball and changeup. He tallied 10 strikeouts, including five of the six batters he faced in the second and third innings. One unearned run was scored during Grimm’s outing on three hits. He also walked three.
“You go out there some days, you don’t have any pitches, maybe one or two working,” Grimm said. “It’s just all about finding a rhythm though. I got out there, found my pitches, so that was really good.”
Grimm has been the tough luck pitcher of the Cotuit staff, entering the game with a 1-4 record despite a 2.84 ERA, but got the win when it mattered most. He had four inning ending strikeouts.
“Justin is a young man who really works at getting better,” Roberts said. “He’s worked all summer on improving his changeup, his rhythm. He didn’t feel like he had very good rhythm today, but I thought he had outstanding velocity.”
Grimm and Wareham starter Cole Green (Texas) both allowed early base runners but made it through the first two innings unscathed. Cotuit broke through when Tony Plagman (Georgia Tech) doubled to lead off the third inning and moved over on a Rico Noel (Coastal Carolina) sac-bunt before tagging and scoring on a deep sac fly to left by Chris Bisson (Kentucky).
Texas teammate Kevin Keyes found a hole between first and second with a broken bat single that scored Cody Stanley (UNC-Wilmington) from second to give the Kettleers a 2-0 lead in the fourth inning.
Wareham got one back in the fifth when Zach Wilson (Arizona State) reached on a throwing error by Bisson and move up to second on a wild pitch before Jake Lemmerman (Duke) drove him in with a single down the right field line.
Stanley punctuated a Cotuit rally in the home half of the fifth inning with a two run shot off Green for his second home run of the season that made the score 5-1.
“I figured I really wouldn’t hit any more, cause my body was getting tired,” Stanley said. “But I came today, stayed real loose, and fortunately enough got the right pitch to do it.”
The Kettleers executed a one out hit and run with Noel at second base and a line drive up the middle by Zach Cone (Georgia) to plate the first run of the inning. Cotuit’s five runs were all charged to Green, who lasted 4 2/3 innings and surrendered all eight hits as well to take the loss.
“We had eight hits tonight, and they were at the right times,” Stanley said. “We did our jobs and got a victory.”
Submariner Ben Rowen (Virginia Tech) relieved Grimm after one batter in the seventh inning. The Gatemen scratched a run across in the eighth when Robert Kral (Charleston) led off with a double and Shea Vucinich (Washington St.) followed with an RBI-single. Rowen then induced a grounder back to him that was converted as a 1-6-3 double play and a pop up to second ended the inning.
With an arm warming in the bullpen, Rowen finished the job himself, retiring the 4-5-6 hitters in the Wareham batting order in the ninth inning.
“Ben’s been unbelievable for us all year,” Roberts said. “I’ve always loved submariners, and Ben is another one of those guys who doesn’t have tremendous talent, but he’s a tremendous competitor.”
Scott Rembisz (Florida International) and Matt Barnes (UCONN) combined for 3 1/3 innings of scoreless relief for Wareham. Rembisz struck out two and walked one in an inning and one-third. Barnes struck out three in the final two innings.