22 July, 2005

Mariners hoist the main sail

Good things have been happening to the Harwich Mariners lately, even though they fell into some old bad habits Monday night in losing in Orleans, 6-5.

They quickly rebounded to top Wareham 6-5 Tuesday and have improved to 13-17 by winning four of their last five games.

"There's a long way to go. We have (16) games left; anything can happen," said manager Steve Englert.

Second baseman Jim Negrych belted a grand slam in the fifth to beat Wareham. It was his fifth homer of the year, and he leads the Mariners with 17 RBI. Scott Sizemore had four hits, improving his average to .283.

Former Brewster temporary player Chris Emanuele is hitting .333 as a Mariner and .313 overall when his 51 at bats with Brewster are factored in. He has 15 hits with both Harwich and Brewster.

The Mariners got few big hits early in the season, but beat Bourne 3-2 July 15 with a run in the ninth. They then clipped Cotuit 5-4 the next night with two runs in the bottom of the ninth. On Sunday, they shocked Y-D 8-1.

"We've gotten good pitching," Englert said. "With (Tim) Lincecum in the closer role, if we get a lead late in the game, we can go to him and that's good. Some guys are starting to come around. Chad Flack is hitting the ball well. If we can get (John) Shelby and some of the guys in the middle of the order hot, we've got a good chance of making a run. We're still in it."

Lincecum picked up his third save of the season against Wareham.

Against Bourne, catcher Matt Morizio reached on a error with two out in the ninth, stole second base and scored the winning run on Arman Sidhu's single to left. Morizio and Sidhu are teammates at Northeastern during the rest of the year.

Cotuit was leading Harwich 4-3 in the bottom of the ninth when Emanuele singled to third, stole second and took third on a wild pitch. Joe Perschina doubled Emanuele home, then took third on a passed ball and scored the game-winner on a wild pitch.

Emanuele knocked in three runs in the 8-1 victory over Y-D. Morizio and Jonathan Wyatt had three hits each. Kyle Parker (3-2) was the winner.

Harwich fell back on hard times Monday in Orleans against the East Division-leading Cardinals. Although starter Harold Mozingo held the Cards to three hits over five innings, he walked five and hit a batter, while the infield committed three errors.

The walks and errors, combined with four Cardinal stolen bases, spoiled Jake Dugger's three-run homer. Flack also homered for Harwich.