Braves make number “10” interesting

Tiffany Seal

COTUIT, Mass.—The Braves picked up win 10 Tuesday night at Lowell Park against the Cotuit Kettleers in a questionable 5-4 victory.

Jake Mangum (Mississippi State) led off in the first with a single and advanced to second with a stolen base.

That was as far as the game would go under regular circumstances, as Justin Yurchak (Binghamton) worked a full count and was hit in the foot to draw a walk. The ball ricocheted off Yurchak to the backstop as Mangum rounded third and scored for the first run of the game.

Home plate umpire Patrick Burns called the pitch ball four instead of ruling Yurchak hit by a pitch, leading to Bourne keeping the run scored by Mangum instead of it being a dead ball.

Cotuit head coach Mike Roberts decided to play the rest of the game under protest because of the call.

Coincidentally, the run was the deciding factor in a 5-4 win in which the Kettleers dropped to a 2-14 record.

The Braves went on to score four more runs in the first to keep the game at a large deficit until the fifth inning.

Greg Deichmann (LSU,) Willy Yahn (UConn,) David MacKinnon (Hartford) and Evan Mendoza (NC State) all hit singles, with MacKinnon and Mendoza each getting an RBI.

Starting pitcher Tony Dibrell (Kennesaw State) pitched three innings of no-hit baseball and had a line of 4 1-3 innings, giving up two earned runs off four hits, two walks and seven strikeouts in his debut for Bourne.

Dibrell originally signed with the Chatham Anglers but was released the third week of the season.

Cotuit starter David Gerics (Pomona-Pitzer College) lasted just a third of an inning giving up four earned runs off three hits and one walk.

Chad Luensmann (Nebraska) relieved Dibrell in the fifth and allowed one run off one hit and one walk over 1 2-3 innings.

Louisville’s Sean Leland made his first appearance for Bourne in the seventh and put up a hitless frame with one walk and a strikeout.

Ronnie Rossomando (UConn) and Andrew Wantz (UNC Greensboro) pitched the eighth and ninth and continued to stump the Kettleers at the plate; combining to go two hitless innings with no walks and three strikeouts to end the game.

The Braves return back home 6, Wednesday to face the Y-D Red Sox (7-9) with probable starter Brady Miller (Western Oregon) on the mound for Bourne.