Braves Squander Late Lead in Gut-Punching 7-6 Loss to Wareham

The Bourne Braves were so close on Sunday night. They had everything going for them. They got the early offense. They got the great starting pitching.

And they still lost.

The Braves are yet to be blown out this year, playing close games night after night. But wins have been hard to come by. They led 5-0 after four innings, and Matt Duffy brought a no-hitter into the sixth. But the offense dissipated after a hot start, and the bullpen blew two late leads as the Braves got walked off in a 7-6 loss to the Wareham Gatemen at Spillane Field.

“We were fine,” Braves manager Scott Landers said. “We got ahead early and didn’t tack on later in the game. Can’t do that. And we gave them free bases later on in those two big innings for them.”

The Braves’ offense, which struggled in the first five games of the season, scored in each of the first four innings. Pete Ciuffreda, who entered with the best OBP on the team, drew a leadoff walk and scored on an errant throw by the second baseman in the first inning. Joey Loynd, hitting cleanup and playing third, also collected a hit in the opening frame.

“He just grinds,” Landers said of Ciuffreda. “He grinds out at-bats and does what he’s supposed to do. Just like a leadoff hitter. He swings at strikes and takes balls.”

Brett Callahan led off the second inning with a double for his first hit of the summer. He scored on a Ciuffreda groundout to extend Bourne’s early lead to 2-0.

Loynd doubled in the third for his second hit, and scored on Garrett Michel’s RBI single. The Braves followed with two more in the fourth, as Ciuffreda, Kodey Shojinaga and Jackson Castillo all singled consecutively at the top of Bourne’s order.

With a 5-0 lead to work with, Duffy was in complete control on the mound. He issued a leadoff walk, but retired the next 15 with six strikeouts. Catcher Adonys Guzman, playing his first game for Bourne, caught a runner trying to steal in the graveled infield after the walk. Duffy went on to keep Wareham hitless until the sixth inning, finally surrendering a single after 5 1/3. His fastball showed a lot of life in the first few innings, while he induced quick outs in the field in the fourth and fifth.

Duffy ended up going six dominant innings, allowing only two singles. He struck out seven and issued just the one walk.

“He had all pitches going today, and he was really effective,” Landers said. “Last time out, it was primarily fastball. He can command the other stuff. But today he had all three going and did a great job out there.”

Matthew McShane had a much more adventurous seventh inning out of the bullpen. Three straight hits got Wareham on the board, though Nick McLain helped out by getting thrown out trying to stretch his single into a double. A pair of walks loaded the bases, with outs not coming easily for McShane. He got a hard lineout to center to narrowly avoid disaster, Bourne still leading 5-2.

Gabe Driscoll had the lone clean inning out of the bullpen for the Braves. He struck out a pair in a perfect eighth. Bourne seemed well on its way to victory, despite the rough seventh.

But Driscoll’s outing was over after three batters.

Doug Kirkland came on for the ninth and immediately found himself in a hole. Two walks sandwiched by a hit batsman put the tying runs on base with nobody out. He recorded a strikeout, then got the second out on a ground ball to second as a run came home. Bourne’s lead was cut to 5-3, but the tying runs were in scoring position with two outs.

With just an out to get, Kirkland couldn’t beat leadoff hitter Dorian Gonzalez. Wareham’s second baseman lined one to the outfield, easily knocking in both runners and sending Bourne into a state of shell shock.

After another walk, Kirkland was pulled. Sidearmer Jacob Exum came in and got the third out, preventing Wareham from walking it off for the time being.

Bourne regained the lead on a Shojinaga single in the 10th, which drove in the ghost runner. Loynd drew a walk, but Michel and Andrew Patrick struck out as the Braves couldn’t widen the gap.

“I just think that we let them settle in,” Landers said. “I thought the at-bats were fine. We just didn’t tack on runs when we needed to.”

Exum stayed in to try to close things out in the bottom of the 10th. But like Kirkland the inning before, he found himself in immediate trouble. A bunt single put runners on the corners, and a walk put Exum in the exact same position as Kirkland: bases loaded, nobody out.

The Gatemen walked it off in a simple but efficient manner, hitting back-to-back sacrifice flies to hand Bourne a 7-6 loss. There wasn’t much Exum could do at that point, with the batters just driving it deep enough to let the runners tag up and advance. Still, Exum was visibly (and audibly) upset after the loss, and there was a brief moment of tension between the umpires and the Bourne coaching staff. Some thought the winning runner might have left third base early, but an appeal was never made.

“Don’t hang your head,” Landers said. “We gotta come back and get a win tomorrow.”

The Braves, now 1-5-1, will be back in action in Chatham Monday at 7 p.m.