Walk-Off Walk Propels Braves to 4-3 Win Over Hyannis

By Mojo Hill

The Bourne Braves didn’t make it easy, but they won anyway on Friday night.

They quite literally walked it off, with Garrett Michel’s base on balls driving in the winning run in the bottom of the ninth. Bourne blew a 3-1 lead and didn’t have much of an offensive response in most of the late innings, but the hitters found a way to get it done at the right time.

“I put the other at-bats in the past. To be honest with you, I didn’t have the best game,” Michel said. “But I told a bunch of people, and I told myself, I was gonna come up in a big situation, and no matter what I did before, it didn’t matter. So I just tried to put the ball in play, but he didn’t really give me a pitch to hit. I kind of had to turn and watch it.”

The win put Bourne back above .500 with a 9-8-1 record.

“A win’s a win,” Braves manager Scott Landers said. “We got a lot of hits early, and we squandered some opportunities. We had some runners in scoring position. Just didn’t get it done in the first four innings. They tied it up, and we did a good job of holding on and getting the momentum back and winning it in the ninth.”

The Braves struck first, scratching out a run on three singles in the second inning. Kendall Diggs and Sam Petersen went back-to-back, and Josh Kuroda-Grauer hit a two-out chopper that snuck threw the right side to give Bourne a 1-0 lead. It was his first hit since coming back from a thumb injury.

“Just trusting myself. Just being aggressive like I know how,” Kuroda-Grauer said. “This is my second real time in two to three weeks seeing live, but just being aggressive on good pitches in the zone to hit.”

On the mound for Bourne, left-hander Liam Doyle got off to a strong start. He retired the first eight, striking out three and getting some help from center fielder Chris Stanfield on defense.

But then the Harbor Hawks tagged Doyle for three straight baserunners and tied the game. With the potential go-ahead runner racing home, shortstop Jonathan Vastine made yet another defensive highlight by nabbing him at the plate, which kept the inning from spiraling.

Vastine’s play proved to be extra vital as the first two batters reached in the fourth. Doyle settled down, though, as he struck out back-to-back hitters and got out of trouble by inducing a grounder to Vastine.

Kuroda-Grauer collected his second hit of the game in the fourth inning, as he started to find some comfort after returning to the lineup on Thursday. Stanfield kept the inning alive with a two-out single, and the runners advanced on a wild pitch. Vastine then came up with a timely hit, slicing a two-run single to give the Braves a 3-1 lead. Vastine has shown a knack for coming through in tight situations.

“He’s a gamer. He’s been doing a really good job, especially in those moments,” Landers said. “He’s also played his game; he’s been getting on with bunts and stuff. He’s a grinder, and that’s what he’s gotta be.”

Doyle recorded the first two outs in the fifth, but he couldn’t complete five innings after a single and a walk put two runners on.

“He was a little erratic in the first, but I think he settled down, pitched really well,” Landers said. “He had a blister in the fifth and kind of couldn’t feel the baseball, but overall it was a great effort. He battled without his split tonight. That’s one of his best pitches, and he didn’t have it. And he used other things to get guys out.”

Kade Grundy replaced Doyle and induced a hard lineout to left fielder Sam Petersen, ending the frame with the potential tying runs on base.

Grundy came back out for the fifth and immediately gave up another rocket, this time over the wall for a home run. Home plate umpire Ryan DiMare then got smacked by a foul tip and appeared to be in considerable pain. The game entered a brief delay as DiMare was escorted out of the game and a new umpire suited up in his place.

After play resumed, Grundy gave up another hard hit, this one falling for a ground-rule double. The Harbor Hawks then knocked down back-to-back bunts to tie the game. Grundy found himself in serious trouble, as a walk loaded up the bases with still only one out.

Bizarrely, it was a wild pitch that actually helped Grundy limit the damage.

Grundy sprinted in from the mound as the ball got to the backstop, and catcher Adonys Guzman made the throw in time to nab the runner trying to score. Grundy finished off the frame with a called strikeout, stranding two runners in scoring position. Despite a tremendously rocky inning with strange circumstances, Grundy managed to keep the game tied at three apiece.

“It didn’t get too far away. I thought [the runner] had a late break,” Landers said. “As long as Grundy got there. Grundy’s a good athlete. We did what we had to do.”

Kuroda-Grauer doubled in the bottom of the sixth for his third hit of the game, doubling the total he’d had in his brief stints with Bourne last summer and this summer combined. He was stranded on second, however, as the rest of the Braves’ lineup struggled to get much going.

“My approach today was just ‘Take the balls, hit the strikes,'” Kuroda-Grauer said. “That’s baseball. Everyone knows: You have a bad day, you come back the next day and do it all over again.”

Reliever Dalton Pence threw a perfect ninth inning, beautifully setting up the chance at a walk-off. Guzman led off the bottom of the ninth with a double, and the rambunctious dugout could already feel some dramatics coming.

“Guz led us off with a leadoff double, which is gigantic for us,” Michel said. “I mean, that changes everything. That changes the way he pitches and stuff like that. So props to him. He’s the one that started that inning, and he deserves all the glory for it.”

Stanfield used his speed to beat out an infield single. After he stole second and Vastine got ahead 2-0, the Harbor Hawks opted to intentionally walk Vastine to load the bases for Derek Bender. The Coastal Carolina slugger got a tad over-anxious and popped out on the first pitch, but Michel stayed patient by working the walk and sending the Bourne faithful home happy.

“We just passed it on to the next guy — what we’ve been doing all season long and what we hope to keep doing,” Michel said. “Just kind of giving it to the next guy and hoping it works.”

The Braves will return to Doran Park on Saturday for a game against the Orleans Firebirds at 6 p.m.