Braves blanked by Kettleers, fall 7-0 at Doran Park

Braves blanked by Kettleers, fall 7-0 at Doran Park

Braves blanked by Kettleers, fall 7-0 at Doran Park

By Mac Friday

(Photo: Braden Reed/Bourne Braves)

On Thursday, Bourne’s Adam Tulloch was cruising. The Arizona State left-hander making his first start of the 2022 CCBL season had allowed just two hits in 11 hitters faced. However fourth-inning blunders proved to be too much to overcome for Tulloch and the Braves, as the Cotuit Kettleers powered to a 6-0 lead which proved to be too much to handle, as the Braves fell 7-0 at Doran Park.

The Kettleers stacked a pair of singles on Tulloch in the first, but the left-hander escaped the jam with a strikeout and putout without hesitation. Tulloch sat down the next six hitters with ease, growing his strikeout total to five. The fourth inning was a completely different story.

“Everything was working for me through the first three innings,” Tulloch said. “My fastball was working, cutter was working, I was getting ahead. I think I just got tired in the fourth.”

Cotuit’s Zachary Cole slotted a leadoff single up the middle. With right fielder Carter Trice at the plate, Tulloch was eager to eliminate any opportunity for a stolen base, issuing three unsuccessful pickoff attempts before pitching to the Cotuit outfielder. When the ball finally made its way over the plate against Trice, the right fielder made it count, smashing the baseball over the left-centerfield fence for a two-run shot.

“That home run I am normally conditioned to be a little bit better, but I just hung it and didn’t locate,” Tulloch added. “I started to feel the tiredness after that and it’s been a while since I pitched competitively, so that just added to it.”

Next, Tulloch walked second baseman Graham Pauley, before grabbing his first out of the inning via strikeout. Another walk proved to be the bottom piece of bread in his sandwich, before giving up a single to load the bases. A two-run single from designated hitter Justin Miknis made the score 4-0 Kettleers, bouncing Tulloch from the bump.

Cotuit would go on to score twice more with reliever Reese Sharp taking the reins, adding six to Tulloch’s total on the night. The ASU lefty ended his night with three and a third innings pitched, six hits, six runs (all earned), two walks and six strikeouts.

The Kettleers tacked on another run in a wacky eighth inning, as first baseman CJ Kayfus reached on a single. With two outs, Trice hit a routine can of corn to right field, which was untimely dropped by Jack Duffy, scoring Kayfus. Later in the frame, Pauley hit a bloop single off the second base bag which resulted in a single but was stranded after the final out.

Thursday night at Doran Park was chilly, with the temperature dropping into the low 60s in the late moments of the game. As brisk as it was outside, the Bourne bats were even colder. The Bravos logged just six baserunners on the night, the only hits being a double from catcher Ryan Leitch and a triple from Dakota Harris.

“I thought tonight was awful to be honest with you,” Braves manager Scott Landers said. “I actually thought we pitched okay, but with six runs in one inning and we had two errors on the night. We gave up some runs on miscues. We have to hit better, we have to have better at bats and we have to play better.”

“We have to clean it up and play baseball the right way. We have to get here, be focused and have fun doing it. We have to play baseball better and today was not that.”

The Braves head out on the road for game five of the CCBL season against the Harwich Mariners at Whitehouse field on Friday. First pitch is set for 6:30 p.m.