Where there’s Smoak there’s fire, at least for the Cotuit Kettleers, who with Justin Smoak’s help secured first place in the Western Division on Tuesday night, a relief after a roller coaster week.

In spite of sweltering heat the Kettleers took to their Lowell Park field against the Chatham A’s. Thanks to a sweet home run from Smoak, and stellar pitching from Dave Duncan, Dan Runzler and Cory Gearrin, the Kettleers defeated the visitors 2-1, solidifying their top spot.

With powerful pitching from both sides, the first three innings whizzed by in record time. It wasn’t until the fourth when Smoak stepped to the plate that the face of the game changed. 

With the count one and two, Smoak took advantage of a wayward pitch by the A’s Ricky Hargrove, sending it flying nicely over the right field fence. 

The run marked Smoak’s 11

Smoak’s homer also put the Kettleers up by one run. Although the team was unable to muster further offense against Hargrove, Duncan managed to hold off the A’s and keep Cotuit in the lead.Patriot Cup will be awarded to the Cotuit team. 

With this win, Cotuit cannot finish out the season any worse than one point ahead of the team that finishes in second place, a position being battled for by Wareham and Falmouth.

The win comes on the heels of Cotuit’s loss to the current second-place holders, the Gatemen, on Monday night. 

Wareham pounced on Cotuit starter Graham Godfrey, as the first Wareham batter, Brandon Glover, sent the ball sailing for his first homer of the season.

With the Gatemen ahead, Cotuit entered the sixth down by three runs. Josh Hula led off the inning with a walk, followed by another from Eric Farris, which put a Cotuit runner in scoring position for the first time during the match.

Smoak then singled, loading the bases. A walk from Reese Havens brought in a run that cut Wareham’s lead to one. Although the Gatemen switched pitchers in an attempt to stop the charge, the reliever hit Matt Angle to tie things up.

Wareham refused to go down quietly, rallying for four runs that earned Shane Matthews his first loss of the season.

Fortunately the loss wasn’t enough to bump Cotuit from the top spot, a position they can now savor as they head into the playoffs.

The Kettleers face Orleans tonight and the Hyannis Mets at Lowell field tomorrow, when the 

th homer of the season, putting him into the Cotuit record books as the player with the most home runs in one season using wooden bats. 

By Kathleen Szmit Manwaring
kmanwaring@barnstablepatriot.com