Adamiak strikes out 11, stifles Bourne’s offense to lead Hawks to first win over Braves

By: Nick Galle 

If you took a look at Mark Adamiak’s record prior to Tuesday night’s game, you may have thought that the Bravos were well on their way to their 25th win of the season. But you would have been wrong.

Entering play at 1-5, the right-hander was excellent, going 6 2/3 innings, allowing four hits, two runs, walking two and fanning 11. He got plenty of run support, and the Harbor Hawks easily handled the Braves for the first time this season, beating them 10-2 at McKeon Park.

“He just did a good job mixing his off-speed pitches,” Nick Goodwin said. “He threw a 12-6 curveball and a hard slider, so I think he did a great job mixing in both of those.”

After making two appearances out of the bullpen, Kelsey Ward made his first start and was chased from the game after 3 2/3 innings. The left-hander surrendered five earned runs, four of which came from a pair of two-run home runs from Nick Romano and Trent Taylor.

Tyler Stuart was the first one to get the call out of the bullpen, and he had one of his best performances to date. The 6-foot-9 right-hander went 2 1/3 innings, gave up two hits, walked one and struck out three.

“It’s a confidence-booster for myself. I’m just trying to do the best I can out of the pen for our guys and just try to put up zeros honestly is the best way to put it,” Stuart said. “I just need to limit the walks sometimes, but if I go in there and throw strikes and let the defense work behind me we’ll be good.”

Attempting to save his bullpen for the first-round playoff series against Cotuit this weekend, field manager Harvey Shapiro gave the ball to Ben Huber and Zach Agnos following Stuart’s departure. Huber went 1/3 of an inning, and Agnos finished off the frame before handing things over to Eric Adler in the bottom of the eighth.

“I felt really good. I told Calvin, I said I wish I had a little more time to warm up, but I’m not mad about what I did and I’m not mad about how I felt,” Agnos said. “I’m going to try to push them to get me out of the pen in the playoffs definitely. I’ve already put a worm in the ear to Ed and Casey.”

It was a quiet night offensively, as the Bravos scrapped together just six hits. Dalton Rushing went 2-for-3 with a walk, Christian Knapczyk went 1-for-4 with one RBI and one run scored and Goodwin went 1-for-3 with a run scored and a walk.

On the other side, Clark Elliott was an absolute menace. He went 3-for-3 with one RBI, a double, two runs scored and two walks. The Michigan product dominated the Braves this season, posting a .600 batting average over the course of the summer.

Bourne will head to Guv Fuller Field tomorrow at 6 p.m. to conclude the regular season with a matchup against the Commodores. The Braves won their first four games of the season against Falmouth, but dropped game five of the season series after Jack Jasiak shut them out for six innings.

Cover photo via: Joe Sullivan