Five-run eighth inning helps snap three-game losing skid; four players have multi-hit evenings

By: Nick Galle 

Ahead of first pitch, Joe Lampe joked around that he was on the chopping block after going 0-for-3 last night against Cotuit and 0-for-4 against Orleans on Monday. The Bravos had lost their last three games, and the Arizona State Sun Devil found himself in a bit of a rut. But getting on base five times was the perfect remedy to turn things around for the better.

Lampe went 3-for-3 with one RBI, one run scored and two walks to help carry the Braves over the Red Sox 8-2. The centerfielder said that after the dry spell, he had spoken with one of his good friends back home, Joey DeMichele, who played at both ASU and on the Cape. DeMichele told Lampe to just stay calm and to simply focus on each at-bat.

“He pretty much just said, ‘Man just go have fun, (you) can’t worry about the future (and) what the future holds. Just take every at-bat like it’s your last and play hard,’ so that’s what I was doing tonight,” Lampe said. “Hopefully we finish strong and go Braves.”

The Bravos took a 1-0 lead in the fourth, but Yarmouth-Dennis answered with two runs in the top of the fifth when Drew Bowser went from second to home on an errant throw and Tanner Smith singled to drive in the go-ahead run. Josh Moylan singled in the bottom half of the inning to plate Dalton Rushing, and Peter Burns’ sacrifice bunt brought in Tanner Schobel to allow the Bravos to regain the lead.

They would never give it up.

Up 3-2, the Braves posted a five-run bottom of the eighth behind five hits, the first of which was a bunt single off the bat of Lucas Costello, his first hit in a Bourne uniform.

“Going into the bottom of the eighth, I just wanted to get on base,” Costello said. “I saw the third baseman was back, so I saw the opportunity and just took it.”

Field manager Harvey Shapiro got another solid start from Trystan Vrieling, who went three innings, allowed just one hit, walked two and struck out four. The Gonzaga Bulldog has now allowed just one run through 11 innings of work this summer against Y-D in his three appearances against the Sox.

“He was down a little bit, and so he didn’t pitch for two weeks. So it was a good to have him back,” Shapiro said. “He’s obviously a good pitcher. He wasn’t as sharp as he normally is, a little rusty, but he hadn’t pitched in two weeks.”

Coming off outings in which it allowed 13 earned runs over the past two days, the bullpen made a nice recovery Wednesday night thanks to the efforts of Dylan Bowers, Tyler Stuart and Eric Adler. Bowers went four innings and surrendered three hits and two unearned runs. Stuart had runners on second and third with just one out in the eighth, but struck out one and got Chase Luttrell to fly out to center to escape danger before Adler locked down Bourne’s 22nd win of 2021.

“The adjustment to the pen has been a little bit weird. It’s taken a few outings to kind of get used to it,” Bowers said. “Today my biggest focus was just taking it a pitch at a time (and) attacking hitters. I had all three pitches going. Just being aggressive, not fearing contact and I had some success with it.”

In addition to Lampe, three other players had multi-hit performances as part of the 12-hit offensive bonanza. Zach Agnos went 3-for-4 with one RBI and a walk, Rushing went 2-for-5 with one RBI, two doubles and two runs scored and Tanner Schobel went 2-for-5 with an RBI and two runs scored.

The Braves have the day off tomorrow, but will be back in action at 6 p.m. on Friday for a matchup with the Whitecaps. Bourne is 2-0 against Brewster this season, but the Caps have been playing excellent baseball as of late, going 7-2-1 in their last 10 games.

Cover photo via: Joe Sullivan