Chase Cohen (Georgia Southern) threw four innings of shutout relief in Cotuit’s 10-0 win over Falmouth.
By: Matt McHugh
June 15, 2017
COTUIT— After their 5-3 win in Bourne yesterday, the Cotuit Kettleers continued their hot start to the 2017 season with a 10-0 win over the Falmouth Commodores on Thursday. The game was called in the 8th inning due to darkness.
The Ketttleers got an excellent start from Dylan King (Belmont) — he went four innings and struck out seven batters while allowing only three baserunners. Strikeouts were King’s calling card in college this season, where he struck out 108 batters in 84 innings.
“He had really good life on his fastball,” Coach Mike Roberts said. “He was fortunate that the offense got him up fairly quickly and he could just sit there with his fastballs and not play around much with his breaking stuff.”
King’s first time through the order was stellar — of the nine batters he faced, seven struck out and the only hit was an infield single.
“[Strikeouts] are never really the plan for me,” King said. I just try to go out there and throw strikes. If it misses a bat, it misses a bat, but I just trust in my defense behind me too.”
The Kettleers had their bats clicking right away, as third baseman John Cresto (Santa Clara) brought in the first run with an RBI double in the 1st inning. A two-out single from Gian Martellini (Boston College) brought two more runs in, and gave the Kettleers an early 3-0 lead at the end of the first inning.
Falmouth starting pitcher James McArthur (Ole Miss) was touched up for two more runs in the second inning before being pulled in favor of Connor Eason (Virginia). McArthur allowed six hits and five runs in a 1.2 inning start.
For the Kettleers, King departed after the fourth, and the bullpen was able to keep the shutout going, thanks to an excellent appearance from Chase Cohen (Georgia Southern), who allowed just three baserunners over the final four innings. In college, Cohen owns a 3.73 career ERA in 34 appearances for the Eagles over the past two seasons, mostly as a starting pitcher.
“It’s kind of different,” Cohen said. “The starting routine is different, but I had some relief appearances during the season, so I kind of knew what it was all about and how to prepare,” Cohen said. “Jonathan King, our pitching coach, was helping out. He really knows how to set your routine and limit your pitches in the bullpen so you’re ready to come in and shut them down.”
As a team, the Kettleer bullpen has allowed just one run in 9.2 innings pitched this season.
“I hope our pitching is our biggest trait, because hitting will not be there every day,” Roberts said. “If you’re going to have an outstanding club you have to pitch consistently every day.”
“With 13 games in 11 days, [General Manager] Bruce Murphy and I have tried to do a better job having more pitching available,” Roberts said. “We’ll kind of see how the depth is now as we play every day.”
On Friday, the Kettleers will travel to Chatham to face the Anglers. First pitch is at 7:00.