Troy returns to the dugout after his second home run to high fives from his teammates. (Photo by Alysa Rubin)
by Clara Richards | Washington University in St. Louis
Cotuit, MA — With two runners on base, Tommy Troy (Stanford) wasn’t afraid to swing on the first pitch he saw that day. The Ketts were down 2-0, but Troy wasn’t hitting for a sac fly; his ball soared over the fence at 100 mph, traveling 394 feet. The kids in the outfield scrambled for the home run ball in the bushes, but they could have waited six pitches for another. Carter Trice walked up to the plate, and on a 2-2 count, he hit another soaring homer into the trees. It put the Kettleers up 4-2 to take the lead that they didn’t relinquish until the eighth inning.
The game was headlined by the long balls, with the Ketts scoring all of their offensive runs on three home runs. After the two dingers in the third inning, Troy added one more in the fourth, a two RBI shot to the scoreboard that flew 411 feet. Troy went 3-for-4 on the night, and he earned 5 RBIs in the Hyannis contest alone. He now boasts a .364 batting average and slugs at a .841 clip.
“I was just sitting on the heater and got it, put a good swing on it, just trying to keep it simple right now,” said Troy in a postgame interview with sideline reporter Jenna Meyer. “We didn’t get the win today, but we’re ready to go tomorrow.”
The Ketts coaching staff put Zach Chappell (University of North Florida) to face the first three lefty batters in the Hyannis lineup. Chappell ultimately threw the first 5 outs before giving the ball to Adam Boucher (Duke). Boucher pitched 2.2 innings and only gave up one hit, but it was an impactful one. The double hit towards the left field foul pole brought in two runners. Max Gieg (Boston College) walked in the game with two runners on and gave up two hits for two earned runs. Harrison Cohen (UVA), who is generally in the starting role, closed out and allowed one last home run to tie the game 6-6 in the eighth.
“With kids in and out, we just try to just go into our jobs and be aggressive,” said Boucher, who is one of six pitchers who has been in Cotuit since the beginning of the season. “We just throw our stuff; don’t fear the hitters, but make them fear us.”
Even though the Kettleers and the Harbor Hawks’ matchup ended in a tie, this even result ends a four-game losing streak for Cotuit. The Kettleers now sit one point ahead of Hyannis in the Cape League West Division standings.
Going forward, head coach Mike Roberts is looking for consistency from his team. “Tommy’s doing a great job at the top, and he’s making good contact, but we’re pretty inconsistent through the rest of the league in contact,” he said. “We’re leading the league in hitting, but the strikeouts are still our Achilles heel. So that’s what we’ll emphasize: we can throw less miles an hour and still throw strikes.”
The Ketts drive across the bridge to Wareham for a 5 p.m. matchup on Wednesday, a game that was moved forward one hour. After losing grasp of a 3-0 lead on Sunday and a 6-2 lead in the fourth on Tuesday night, Cotuit will look to finally get back in the win column.
Reporter’s Notebook: Takeaways from the game
The dugout celebrates after Troy’s home run while Tyler Johnson (Coastal Carolina) prepares for his at-bat. (Photo by Alysa Rubin)
Reporter’s Notebook
By Joe Pratt | Baylor University
In two straight games, all of the Kettleers’ offense was a product of the home run ball. Last game on Sunday at Bourne, Carter Trice (NC State) allowed the Ketts to jump out into the lead with a 3-run homer. But the Bourne bats ended up eclipsing the 3-0 deficit and protected home turf with a 5-3 win. Tuesday, both Tommy Troy and Carter Trice combined to drive in six runs, all on homers.
- Troy led-off the contest with a roped double to the alley and followed that up with a 3-run bomb in the third, along with a 2-run round-tripper in the fourth. The ‘Double T’ posted a 3-for-4 day at the plate, all three of his knocks going for extra bases and beyond.
The third inning of the ballgame put the Ketts in the lead after Hyannis jumped out to a 2-0 advantage in the top-half of the frame. Six straight batters reached base and four runs were scored before the Harbor Hawks recorded an out.
- It was a bit of an unconventional approach to the game pitching-wise on Tuesday. Coach Roberts’ plan for Zach Chappell to face the lefties of the lineup worked perfectly until the long-ball nipped at the Ketts’ heels. After Chappell sat down five Harbor Hawks in a row, Roberts turned to Adam Boucher. While Boucher wasn’t a victim of the big fly, he was still responsible for two runs that crossed the plate. Max Gieg gave up just one home run this season at Boston College, but tonight watched two balls sail into the woods lining the outfield fence during his 2.1 IP performance. Usually a starter, Harrison Cohen also came out of the ‘pen. Cohen’s first bullpen outing went smoothly other than one blemish – the game-tying solo home run in the top of the eighth. Unfortunately, after the Ketts quiet bottom of the eighth, the game was called and resulted in a tie.
- Caleb Ketchup (Lipscomb) played in his first codball game of the summer. Ketchup started at shortstop and went 1-for-4 on the day and showcased his quickness on the basepaths. Before snagging his first bag of the year, Ketchup rifled his first hit up the middle, using his first at-bat strikeout as a guide to getting on base. “I noticed that the [pitcher] had a little bit of a ride, his ball kind of stayed true to plane,” Ketchup said, “So in the next at bat, he kind of mixed up on me – he went slider slider, and I knew that he liked his fastball against me, [and] I didn’t really hit it too well. So I thought, just stay above the baseball and work back up the middle.”