Braves give Commodores West title

Tiffany Seal

FALMOUTH, Mass.–The Falmouth Commodores (28-13) officially clinched the Western title Sunday night at the Braves’ (19-20-2) expense, who dropped a sloppy 5-0 shutout against the best team in the CCBL.

Right off the bat, Falmouth hitters jumped on Bourne’s JT Perez (Cincinnati,) who gave up three runs in the first.

After an RBI triple by Joshua Watson (TCU,) Tristan Gray (Rice) brought in Watson off a ground-rule double and was shortly brought home by an RBI single from Tyler Lawrence (Murray State) for the third run.

With a 3-0 deficit going into the second, Bourne was unable to answer with their bats.

David MacKinnon (Hartford) led off the inning with a single and was advanced to third off a single by Danny Reyes (Florida.) But was stranded at third as both Jeremy Eierman (Missouri State) and Brennan Breaux (LSU) were retired by Jake Bird (UCLA.)

Bird went five innings, giving up just three hits with five strikeouts.

Bird was relieved by Florida’s Brady Singer who went two innings in which the Braves were able to get three hits off of but unable to bring any in to score.

The backend of the Commodores’ bullpen continued to impress and carry the shutout to the end, with Stephen Villines (Kansas) and Corbin Martin (Texas A&M) combing to go two-scoreless innings of two-hit baseball.

With a dragging offense, the Braves did nothing to help their cause on defense, making two errors in the first inning and committing an error on the base paths in the ninth, when Reyes hit a double to deep-center and was caught trying to stretch it into a triple for the second out of the ninth.

The Braves return home to face eastern division opponents, Harwich (25-14-2) 6 p.m. Monday at Doran Park.

Bourne’s probable starter is Michael Dibrell (Kennesaw State) with Harwich still TBA.