Bourne Holds On to Beat Chatham 7-5 Behind Bryce Cunningham’s Solid Outing

By Mojo Hill

After a disheartening loss under the rain and fog in Hyannis, and an off day on Tuesday, the Bourne Braves got back to their winning ways at Doran Park on Wednesday. They took advantage of a struggling Chatham team and pulled out a 7-5 victory. Bryce Cunningham turned in a solid start, and the Anglers’ messy play helped the Braves come out on top. They nearly relinquished a 6-0 lead, but held on nonetheless to improve their record to 15-11-1.

“We’ll take it,” Bourne manager Scott Landers said. “We just have to clean some stuff up. The last two games we’ve got out to bigger leads, comfortable leads, and we’ve let teams back in it. We’ve gotta clean that up and put the pedal down when we have them down. But overall, we’ll take a win.”

Not only do the Anglers have the worst record on the Cape, but their games have been continuously fogged out, and their manager Tom Holliday stepped down earlier on Wednesday due to personal health reasons. Taking over as acting manager was Marty Lees, a veteran with Pac-12 coaching experience.

Chatham left-hander Liam Paddack struck out Bryce Eblin to begin his outing, but then labored and couldn’t record another out. After two straight free passes, Caden Bodine singled up the middle to drive in the first run of the game. A pair of wild pitches brought in two more runs, giving Bourne a quick 3-0 lead. It was a messy start to the game for the Anglers, who couldn’t clean things up despite having a new manger at the helm.

Lees had to pull Paddack after only recording one out. He walked three and hit a batter in his short appearance.

The Anglers brought in another lefty, Maxx Yehl, who had similar issues as Paddack. He got out of the first inning, but allowed two more free passes in the second. Both runners came in to score on a single by Derek Bender. It was 5-0 Braves after two innings, with six free passes already on the night.

“Not really, but we did it,” Landers said when asked if the plan was to work walks early on. “We gotta start hitting better. But we took our at-bats when we got them, the walks and stuff. So we had good at-bats.”

Cunningham kept things under control on Bourne’s end for the first five innings. He settled in and worked quickly after a leadoff double, which was erased on a caught stealing. After pitching to contact in the early going, he started painting the zone and collecting strikeouts. He recorded four called strikeouts in a five-batter span at one point.

“Early, he didn’t have good stuff. I don’t think he felt right out there, and he was missing everything arm-side,” Landers said. “Then he got going a little bit and did a good job.”

Yehl hit Nu’u Contrades to lead off the bottom of the fourth, giving Bourne its eighth free pass (five walks and three hit batsmen). After Gage Harrelson singled, Contrades came home on a Jonathan Vastine sacrifice fly.

Yehl gradually found the strike zone as his outing went on. Bodine and Sam Petersen singled against him in the fifth, but the Anglers turned a slick 4-6-3 double play to keep the Braves’ lead at 6-0.

Cunningham cracked and surrendered three runs in the sixth. A leadoff homer by Deric Fabian got Chatham on the board, and an RBI single and a peculiar 7-4 fielder’s choice brought in two more. Petersen dropped a routine fly ball in left, but he was able to record the force at second to keep the inning from spiraling.

“Left an 0-2 slider down the middle for Fabian,” Cunningham said. “And he did what he was supposed to.”

Cunningham’s final line saw him go six innings, allowing three runs on six hits and zero walks while striking out seven. The lack of walks was a notable improvement after four in 4 2/3 innings last time out, although he did hit a batter.

“As the game went on, I felt like I just got better with my locations and felt better,” Cunningham said.

Max LeBlanc came on in the seventh for his Bourne debut. He quickly gave up a double and a two-run homer, trimming Bourne’s lead all the way down to 6-5.

With the momentum starting to sway in Chatham’s favor, the Braves were gifted a crucial insurance run in the eighth inning. Kendall Diggs singled, then advanced all the way to third on an errant pickoff throw. He scored on a passed ball to give the Braves a two-run cushion.

Brady Afthim threw the final two innings for Bourne and shut the door, not letting Chatham creep back like Hyannis did on Monday. There was a brief moment of panic with two outs in the ninth, as a popup in the infield clanked off Contrades’s glove to put the tying runs in scoring position. But Afthim bore down and didn’t let the miscue phase him.

“I got what I thought would be the third out, so I just stuck with that: Get ahead, stay ahead,” Afthim said. “I know tensions were high there with second and third, two-run game…. Just keep making pitches and hopefully get rewarded, and that’s what happened.”

The Braves will be back in action Thursday at Doran Park against the Falmouth Commodores, with first pitch set for 6 p.m. as usual.