Bravos get revenge on Ketts with blowout win

By: Nick Galle 

If the Braves were hungry for a win against Cotuit after their 13-2 loss last Tuesday, Monday night’s game against the Kettleers could easily be compared to a 40-piece chicken nugget meal with two large orders of fries.

Bourne’s offense was firing on all cylinders, hanging 13 runs on the Ketts, who entered play on a five-game win streak. Five of those 13 runs came in the bottom of the fourth, a rally that was spearheaded by RBI singles from Ben Huber, Dalton Rushing, Tanner Schobel and Colby Thomas. Joe Lampe also had a sacrifice fly.

“I think everybody was looking for a good pitch to hit, and they got a good pitch to hit and they didn’t try to do too much. Everybody kind of saw the ball well tonight,” Thomas said. “It’s been awhile since we scored like this and had this many hits. It took awhile, but this was definitely going to happen eventually.”

Thomas would bring Christian Knapczyk home with a sacrifice fly the following inning before the offense found a second wind in the final third of the game. The Bravos posted another three runs in the bottom of the seventh and two in the bottom of the eighth to cap off their 13-1 rout of the Kettleers.

“It was just great to see guys get good barrels on the ball and stay in the game even though we were up,” volunteer coach Quinn Stebbins said. “A lot of times when teams are up, we were up what, 8-1, they’ll just settle at 8-1, and this team just seems to want to keep scoring runs, and keep battling, and keep trying to win every inning. So I think that’ll benefit us as we go into the playoffs.”

The pitching wasn’t too bad either.

In his Bourne debut, Matt Jachec was stunning. The Hamptons Collegiate Baseball League All-Star went six innings, allowed five hits, just one run and struck out four to record his first win on the Cape.

“I pretty much did the same thing as I did in the Hamptons League, just kind of doing what I do best myself and stay within myself,” Jachec said. “(I) just had a lot of confidence and obviously they put up a bunch of runs behind me, so I kind of settled in pretty easily and just rode with that.”

Max Anderson stayed hot at the dish, hitting his second home run in just as many nights. Huber went 3-for-5 with one RBI and three runs scored, Thomas went 2-for-3 with two RBIs, two runs scored and was hit by a pitch and Schobel was 2-for-4 with a double and three RBIs. The Louisville duo of Rushing and Knapczyk also put on a show, combining to go 4-for-8 with two RBIs, four runs scored and two walks.

“It all starts with the starting pitcher. The guy we had that threw today, if he had thrown yesterday it wouldn’t have been such a long, lousy game,” field manager Harvey Shapiro said. “Everybody’s kind of down in pitching trying to get through these six games which are hard and trying not to use anybody that you have to pitch on the weekend.”

The Bravos will close their regular season with two road games, the first of which is tomorrow at 6 p.m. in Hyannis. Bourne is 4-0 this year against the Harbor Hawks, with its last win coming on July 14 thanks to Cayden Wallace’s walk-off double in the bottom of the ninth.

Cover photo via: Joe Sullivan