Braves Come Back to Beat Commodores

By: Jacob Janower (Photo: Blaine McCormick)

Seven unanswered runs from the Bourne Braves lifted them to a 7-5 win over the Falmouth Commodores, their second straight over their West Division foe.

Four runs was the largest deficit that the Braves (13-11) have made up this season and outside of the bottom of the second inning, they delivered an overpowering effort.

The comeback was headlined by a two-run, go-ahead home run by Scott Schreiber (Nebraska) in the seventh inning.

“When you do too much you get in trouble,” Schreiber said. “I just kept things simple.”

For the first half of the game, the Commodores (11-12-1) were in complete control. They got two early home runs that gave them a huge boost.

George Janca’s (Texas A&M) long ball in the second inning was the first blow. Four batters later, Cam O’Neill padded the Commodores lead with a three-run shot.

Both home runs came off of the Braves starter Nick Bennett (Louisville), who labored once again while facing the Commodores offense that is littered from top to bottom with fire power.

Janca continued his dismantling of Braves pitching. He has collected six hits and two home runs during the three games that these teams have met.

Sixth Inning is the Charm

Four walks and just two hits off the Commodores bullpen tied the game as the Braves conjured up a four-run inning of their own in the sixth.

Grant Witherspoon (Tulane) and Richie Palacios (Towson) each drove in a run with a bases loaded walk, and a run-scoring wild pitch combined with a sacrifice fly from Tyler Fitzgerald (Louisville) tied the game.

Most of the damage was done against relievers Zachary Leban (Kansas) and Mitchell Miller (Clemson). Miller has been one of the best relievers in the Cape Cod Baseball League, but allowed a couple of inherited runners to score as well as Schreiber’s home run in the following inning.

Commodores starting pitcher Kyle Bradish (New Mexico State) held the offense at bay for the first five innings, collecting five strikeouts and running his total up to eight scoreless innings against the Braves.

Bennett Better Against Falmouth

On July 2, Bennett gave up nine hits and four runs in three innings against a similar Commodores offense.

Monday’s performance, while not perfect, was a slight improvement. He threw an extra inning, allowing the same number of earned runs but giving up only five hits.

The second inning was the only blemish on Bennett’s record, as he allowed only one hit and no runs outside of that frame.

After throwing a lot of breaking balls early in the count in his first start,

Bennett closed his outing with a 1-2-3 and his ability to keep the team in the game cannot be understated and proved to be big later on.

Hoeing, Bullpen Impress

Fellow Louisville Cardinal Bryan Hoeing came on in relief of Bennett and retired nine of the ten hitters that he faced, striking it out four batters while sitting in the low 90s with his velocity.

“I just wanted to get ahead of some hitters,” Hoeing said. “I thought that if I commanded the strike zone early, I would have a good chance to get some guys out and I think that’s what I did. (Catcher Zac Susi) behind there, we had a good connection going on, so we were just clicking.”

Hoeing was making only his second appearance of the season, but turned some heads with his performance on Monday, which like Bennett, was better than the first time against the Commodores.

“The biggest thing in this outing today was my change-up, that was really effective tonight,” Hoeing said. “The first time I couldn’t really find a feel for all three of my pitches, so today I had a really good feel for all of my pitches which allowed me to get some outs.”

Without arguably his top three closing options at his disposal due to rest, manager Harvey Shapiro opted to use Kyle Marman (Florida Atlantic) to pitch the final two innings and he allowed only one unearned run. Marman finished his outing with an exclamation point, striking out the side in the ninth.

Stat That Mattered

Fitzgerald became the first Brave this season to record at least one hit, run, RBI, walk, and strikeout in the same game.

Brave of the Game

In addition to Schreiber’s two-run home run, he also collected two singles and scored a run.

“I would just say I was sticking to my approach, not getting outside of myself, and keeping things simple,” he said about his big day.

After incurring a minor slump through some of his more recent contests, the first baseman appears to be coming into his own again at the plate.

“I mean obviously you are going to get beat on days with this pitching,” Schreiber said. “Stay within myself and keep with my approach, not get frustrated without having any hits. Just sticking to my approach and not getting away from myself.”

Coming Up: For the first time since June 22, the Braves will face the Harwich Mariners, which will conclude their three-game road trip. It will be their first visit to Whitehouse Field.