Missed Opportunities Lead Bourne to 3-3 Tie With Falmouth

The Bourne Braves took their road trip to Falmouth on Sunday, looking for their first win of the season. Playing in the venue of Arnie Allen Diamond at Guv Fuller Field, they performed better than their season-opening loss, but they still left a plethora of runners on base and couldn’t convert in enough opportunities to pull out a victory. Instead, they tied the Commodores 3-3 in a 10-inning affair, with each team driving in its ghost runner in the lone extra inning.

“They’re grinding. They’re doing a good job. We’re trying to feel them out as players. They’ve only been here a couple days,” Braves manager Scott Landers said. “But we gotta have a better plan with runners in scoring position. All the other stuff, they’re doing pretty well. Our two-strike approaches probably aren’t the best, but you’re gonna have that right now. So we’ll just keep plugging at it.”

Starter Matt Duffy kept things in check for Bourne through the first three innings. He posted 13.39 K/9 for Canisius this season, and he collected four through the first three frames of his 2023 summer debut — including two in a perfect second. He stranded runners in scoring position in the first and third, ending each frame with a punchout.

On the offensive side, the Braves continued to work counts, much as they did in Saturday’s opener. They stranded a Kodey Shojinaga single in the first, and a pair of walks were wasted in the second. Joey Loynd was caught stealing, and Pete Ciuffreda got doubled off on a popout to shallow right. Bourne has shown an aggressive baserunning style in the early going, though that plan wasn’t as successful Sunday night.

“We ran ourselves into a couple blunders — a couple called, a couple not,” Landers said. “But hey, we gotta play aggressive, especially out here. This time of the year, you gotta manufacture runs. And they’re trying to do that, and feel their way through it. But I guarantee that’ll get better and better.”

In the third inning, they finally broke through. Kavi Caster — a Division III star for Salisbury University — singled in his first at-bat of the summer, then scratched his way around the bases. He made it to second on an errant pickoff throw, advanced to third on a wild pitch and scored on an RBI groundout by catcher Evin Sullivan.

Duffy cracked in the fourth inning as well, though. He issued his second walk of the night, then surrendered a two-out, two-run bomb to Falmouth DH Ross Highfill. Falmouth shot in front, 2-1.

So the Braves went back to work in the fifth. Caster collected another single, and was caught stealing, but Sullivan kept the inning alive with another hit. They pushed across the tying run on three consecutive free passes, including an RBI walk from Garrett Michel. Andrew Patrick struck out to strand the bases loaded.

The game stayed in a deadlock for the next three innings. Left-hander Henry Weycker was effective for Bourne, throwing four scoreless innings out of the bullpen. He struck out two in the fifth, and worked around baserunners in the sixth and eighth with the help of two double plays started by shortstop Paul Tammaro III.

“Just minimizing pitches and getting guys out early in counts,” Landers said. “He did an awesome job mixing and hitting spots and keeping us right there.”

The Braves had a baserunner in each of the final four innings, but they couldn’t push any of them across. They had a runner on third with less than two outs in both the eighth and ninth, but Loynd, Caster and Sullivan struck out at inopportune times. They had plenty of chances but just couldn’t come through when they needed to.

Thus, the game went to one extra inning, with a ghost runner starting on second base. Michel provided Bourne with the clutch hit it urgently needed, ripping an RBI single to drive in the first run since the fourth inning. But still, the Braves’ situational hitting woes plagued them. They got flat-out unlucky on a double by Loynd, as it should have driven in another run but bounced over the wall for a ground-rule double. Ciuffreda walked to load the bases, but Jake Rainess flew out to strand three.

Joe Vogatsky, who pitched a perfect ninth, stayed in the for the bottom of the 10th. He immediately got himself into a jam, allowing a walk and a hit batter to load the bases with nobody out. Landers held a mound meeting to calm him down, and the tension thickened at Guv Fuller Field as fans of both teams cheered on their respective players.

With the spotlight on him, Vogatsky struck out back-to-back hitters. He nearly achieved a miraculous feat to shore up the save and scratch out a gutsy win.

But it takes three outs to complete an inning, not two.

Vogatsky lost his control, issuing a bases-loaded walk to tie the game. Murmured grunts trickled among the Bourne side of the stadium. With the Cape League having a 10-inning maximum, there was no longer any chance of a Braves victory. Still, Vogatsky got the next batter to ground out to first, which avoided the second loss of the summer.

Instead, Bourne settled for a tie.

“We had a couple opportunities with runners in scoring position, less than two outs, and we didn’t produce,” Landers said. “But overall, it was better. A step in the right direction.”

Both teams now move to 0-1-1 on the young season. The Braves will complete this road trip with a matchup against Orleans on Monday at 6:30 p.m. before their home opener on Tuesday against Cotuit at 6 p.m.