Braves Overcome Blown Lead, Questionable Calls to Beat Falmouth 7-6

By Mojo Hill

The wins haven’t been as smooth for the Bourne Braves lately, but they’ve been coming anyway, and Sunday night saw them persevere in yet another thriller.

Taking on the Falmouth Commodores at Guv Fuller Field, the Braves blew an early 5-1 lead. After a quick offensive start, the bats slowed down, and frustration mounted over a collection of contentious calls from the umpires — which reached a boiling point after a controversial double play in the eighth inning. But in spite of everything that occurred, the Braves were able to squeeze out a 7-6 victory and could go home with a reason to smile.

“I thought there were some questionable calls throughout the game — obviously the one,” Bourne manager Scott Landers said. “It’s my job to defend the guys, and I just told them they’ve gotta play the game and let me do the dirty work. But I’m glad about their resiliency. It was good to see. We just had to battle tonight.”

The Braves’ offense showed a lot of patience early on. They drew two walks in the first inning, but left the bases loaded to kick off the game. They struck in the next inning, though, on a Chris Stanfield two-run single. In the first two innings, Stanfield had two hits, two RBIs and got caught stealing twice. His shortcomings on the bases prevented it from being a bigger inning, as Bryce Eblin and Derek Bender drew the fourth and fifth Bourne walks of the game but were left stranded.

“I want these guys to be aggressive and take bases when we get them,” Landers said. “I’m not mad at those. I tell them to keep doing it. We’ll teach them along the way, but they gotta get comfortable and playing that style.”

Left-hander Tristan Smith got his first start on the bump for the Braves after a clean inning of relief early this summer. He struck out two and allowed just an infield single in the first inning. He briefly lost his command in the second inning, making a wildly errant pickoff throw before hitting a batter and walking another, but he limited the damage to a sacrifice fly and kept the Braves up 2-1.

Landers’s first major complaint to the home plate umpire came after that pickoff, as catcher Hugh Pinkney’s brief trip to talk to Smith was deemed a mound visit. Landers audibly told Pinkney not to worry about it because the umpire was simply wrong.

Bourne snagged three more runs with two outs in the top of the third. Jonathan Vastine drew the Braves’ sixth walk, then stole second and scored on a clutch knock by Gage Harrelson. Pinkney followed with another clutch hit. The catcher from Rutgers came into the game just 2-for-23 this season, but he proved valuable with a sacrifice bunt in the second inning and then his second RBI of the summer.

“I’m just trying to hit the ball on the barrel up the middle,” Pinkney said. “When I’m a little early, I can pull the ball, and if I’m a little late, I’ll hit the ball the opposite field. So that’s really been my focus.”

Stanfield provided the third straight hit of the inning, and already his third in the first three innings. It was a three-run frame for the Braves, giving them a 5-1 lead with three of the runs being driven in by Stanfield.

Derek Bender and Caden Bodine led off the fourth inning with a single and a double, but the Braves couldn’t tack anything more onto their lead. Bender was thrown out trying to score on a wild pitch, and Sam Petersen and Cameron Foster both struck out.

“We just kind of played our style,” Landers said. “We took bases when we could. It bit us in the butt a couple times — we got picked off or thrown out, but it’s gonna happen.”

Smith recorded a perfect third inning before failing to record an out in the fourth. After a single and a walk, David Falco took his place on the hill. Both runners came around to score on a single, so Smith wound up being charged with three runs in three-plus innings.

Falco’s runner came in to score as well on another single, cutting the Braves’ lead to 5-4.

The Commodores tacked on another to tie it in the fifth. After they loaded the bases, the tying run came home on a strange 9-4 fielder’s choice where the runner thought Harrelson was going to make the catch. In any case, it was a 5-5 game after five innings.

Falco bounced back with a scoreless sixth. The inning ended on a batter’s interference call, much to the dismay of the Falmouth dugout.

Falco’s outing came to an end after surrendering back-to-back singles with one out in the seventh, with 3 1/3 innings in the books. Left-hander Ryan Free came in and bailed him out, ending the inning with a strikeout to keep it tied.

The Braves had something going in the eighth as Harrelson and Pinkney led off with hits. It was Pinkney’s third hit in a much-needed breakout performance. He put yellow tape on each wrist before the game in the hopes of shaking something up, and it paid off.

“Just a little frustration with my bat, but I knew it was gonna come around,” Pinkney said. “The yellow tape — I saw [Bryce Eblin] wear it, and I had to put it on. It worked for him, so maybe it’ll work for me.”

With two runners on, Stanfield hit a long fly ball to left field that was caught just short of the wall. Harrelson tried to tag up and go to third, but the umpire said he left early, so Harrelson was effectively doubled up. Harrelson put his hands up in disbelief, while Landers ran out to argue. The umpire’s first words to Landers — which could likely be heard by anybody within the vicinity of the field — were, “So do you want to ask me a question, or do you want to tell me how to umpire?” Landers later yelled out to him that he was “screwing this game up royally from third base.”

But after that missed opportunity, the Braves came right back out in the ninth. Bender and Bodine wasted no time, leading off with back-to-back hits to finally put Bourne back on top. Sam Petersen singled and was caught stealing, but Vastine drove in a crucial insurance run by legging out a bunt single. Despite all the commotion that preceded, the Braves found themselves with a 7-5 lead.

Free stayed in to finish the game off after throwing a lockdown eighth. He wavered slightly, allowing a one-out RBI double to put the tying run in scoring position, but he stayed composed and completed the rollercoaster 7-6 victory.

“I thought he ran out of gas because he just got here,” Landers said. “But his velo was up a little bit tonight from the other day, and he pitched his butt off.”

Bourne has now won 10 of its last 13 games, improving its overall record to 11-8-1.

The Braves will get a day off Monday before playing a road game against Wareham on the 4th of July at 6 p.m.