Chatham bests Bourne after eighth inning meltdown

Chatham bests Bourne after eighth inning meltdown

What was once a six-run lead for the Bourne Braves gradually evaporated over the course of Friday’s game, culminating in the team’s first loss since June 17.

Chatham’s Ben Ramirez (Southern California) provided a game-tying RBI single as part of a three-run eighth inning to sink the Braves 8-6 and snap Bourne’s four-game winning streak.

Power surge to power outage

Over the course of Bourne’s winning streak, several members of the team cited an ability to feed off of one another as a cause for the Braves’ recent success.

Against Chatham, the Braves had four singles in five at-bats to open the game, generating an early 2-0 advantage courtesy of RBI hits from Spencer Brickhouse (East Carolina) and Tyler Fitzgerald (Louisville).

Chasing Anglers’ starter Jackson Wark (Saint Louis) after one inning created sparks but it wasn’t until reliever Zach King (Vanderbilt) entered that the Braves’ offense ignited.

First, it was a three-run blast to right center by Spencer Horwitz (Radford) followed up by a solo shot by Brickhouse to give Bourne a 6-0 lead after two innings.

However, the Braves were unable to sustain this offensive production as the bats went silent over the final seven frames.

“I thought we need to be able to do a better job of pulling the game out together … really important just to keep the hits going and continue to play good baseball,” pitching coach Keith Bilodeau said.

Coming Up: Bourne returns home for its second meeting of the season with the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox.