By Courtney Swift
Kettleers Lead Writer
July 1, 2012
“Coach challenged us to compete out there and stay as a team and today was a perfect day to prove to ourselves that we can win in this league.” James Roberts (Photo by Joe Cavanaugh)
BOURNE – What began as a classic pitchers’ duel ended in a full team effort from both ballclubs at Doran Park Sunday night. Cotuit faced off against Bourne and held two different leads, only to have the Braves battle back, but a clutch extra inning hit helped propel the Kettleers to a 7-4 win.
The early innings went by quickly, as both pitchers brought their A-games, but each team waited patiently for the other starter to make a mistake. Cotuit’s Kevin Ziomek (Vanderbilt) gave way first, giving up a solo shot to left-center in the second to Josh Desze (Ohio State) putting the Braves on top 1-0. “I’m just going out there trying not to do too much, Ziomek said. “Just trying to get people out, trust our hitters to get some runs late in the game, which they did.” Bourne held that lead until the top of the sixth, when Braves starter Chad Green (Louisville) made a few mistakes of his own.
Angel Rosa (Alcorn State) led off the sixth with a walk, and he later scored on a triple to right-center by Tony Kemp (Vanderbilt). Kemp then scored on a sac fly by Raph Rhymes (LSU), giving the Kettleers a 2-1 lead and chasing Green from the game. Green pitched 5 1/3 innings giving up two runs on three hits with one walk and eight strikeouts.
After the early mistake by Ziomek, he continued his brilliant pitching performance, throwing 6 1/3 innings giving up just one run on three hits. “To me, he was a big league pitcher tonight,” said Coach Mike Roberts. “That’s what we’re looking for out of him, and I thought he did that this evening.” Ziomek walked one and struck out nine, leaving the game with the lead.
Bourne threatened in the sixth and eighth, but Cotuit got by unscathed. Dan Slania (Notre Dame) who got the Kettleers out of a two on, one out, jam in the eighth wasn’t as lucky in the ninth with the Kettleers still up by one. Slania gave up a single to Jack Reinheimer (East Carolina) to get the Braves going in the bottom of the ninth, but then struck out the three and four hitters. With one on and two away Slania gave up two singles, the second to John Murphy (Sacred Heart), which tied the score at two apiece and sent the game into extras.
Cotuit bounced back in the tenth, going ahead 4-2 after some heads-up base running by Kemp to score with no one covering home plate. His efforts were quickly erased in the bottom of the inning when Bourne came back to tie the score again. Both teams went down quietly in the eleventh before Cotuit took a 7-4 lead in the top of the twelfth that they looked to preserve.
Patrick Biondi (Michigan) led off the twelfth with a bunt, and Kemp and Adam Nelubowich (Washington State) both walked in between flyouts to load the bases for James Roberts (USC). Roberts cleared the bases on a perfectly-placed hit down the third base line, giving the Kettleers a three run lead they didn’t want to give back. “It was fun, just because we’ve been on a pretty slow streak,” Roberts said. “Coach challenged us to compete out there and stay as a team and today was a perfect day to prove to ourselves that we can win in this league.” Jacob Stone, Cotuit’s sixth pitcher of the game got the win for the Kettleers after throwing two innings and giving up just one hit.
Cotuit faces Bourne (now 3-11) again Monday to make up Tuesday’s rainout. The Kettleers are now 6-8 on the season and sit in the middle of the Western Division standings behind Falmouth and Wareham. For more information and post game interviews, visit the Official Kettleers YouTube Page.