Braves Struggle to Respond After Five-Run Second in 7-2 Loss to Falmouth

By Mojo Hill

In a game that was pushed up due to power outages in the area, the Bourne Braves had a malfunction of their own in a 7-2 loss to Falmouth at Doran Park Thursday night. Their record fell to 15-12-1, while the Commodores have won five in a row.

“I thought we played terrible,” Bourne manager Scott Landers said. “We just went through the motions today.”

With a start time that kept changing — from 6:00, to 5:30, to 5:15, to 5:20 — the teams finally got going around 5:25 p.m. Once they were playing, the Braves got things started on a positive note. They received a couple soft hits from Kendall Diggs and Jonathan Vastine, then struck first on a Josh Kuroda-Grauer ground-rule double. It would have easily scored the speedy Vastine if it didn’t bounce over the wall. Cam Foster struck out against Jacob Smith’s nasty curveball, so Bourne settled for taking a 1-0 lead.

Left-hander Dalton Pence worked around two baserunners in the first inning, but his evening went south quickly in the second inning. Five straight batters reached, including three consecutive singles at one point. Pence recorded two strikeouts in the inning and finally brought the frame to an end after 10 batters and five runs.

“He was just missing a bunch of spots, and they were hitting him,” Landers said. “We’ll get him right. He’s a good arm. He’s got a good mentality. He’ll get better.”

The Braves’ offense got one back in the fourth. Kuroda-Grauer hit his second double of the game, and a good hop helped Cam Foster record an RBI single. Garrett Michel followed with an impressive piece of hitting to take one the other way for a single against the Falmouth left-hander. But Smith went back to his signature curveball, recording strikeouts of Gage Harrelson and Diggs.

“He just kept us off balance. Plain and simple,” Landers said. “He threw four pitches for strikes and got us off the heater. We just didn’t do a good job.”

Newcomer Justin Lovell took over on the mound for the Braves and kept them in the game after Pence’s disastrous outing. He allowed just a one-out single in the third, ending the frame with his first strikeout — which prompted a shout of “That’s no nasty!” from a nearby kid.

Lovell permitted a single and a walk in the fourth, but a 5-4-3 double play kept Falmouth off the board. The Commodores got a leadoff double in the fifth, and Lovell worked out of trouble once again with the help of a slick play by Vastine at short. Vastine has continuously shown that he’s already a major league-caliber shortstop, with effortless range and a naturally strong arm.

“It’s the first time I’ve seen Justin, so we got some things we gotta work on,” Landers said. “But overall, I was really happy with how he did.”

Lovell came out with a runner on first after 3 1/3 strong innings of relief. Matthew McShane entered and threw two wild pitches, allowing the runner to score after stealing second. McShane settled in to throw a scoreless seventh and eighth, with the Braves still trailing 6-2.

A run scored on a passed ball with McShane on the mound in the ninth. A caught stealing and back-to-back strikeouts kept things from getting any worse, but it was still a five-run game with Bourne not getting anything going offensively. The Braves didn’t record a hit after the fourth inning and fell 7-2 without much of a fight.

“We just have to get a little more motivation on a daily basis,” Landers said.

The Braves will go on the road to play Orleans at 6:30 p.m. on Friday.