It was a night for the record books for Hyannis Mets left-hander Charlie Furbush (St. Joseph’s) but one the Bourne Braves would just as soon forget. Wednesday Hyannis defeated Bourne 14-0 and Furbush tossed a no-hitter.

There was little the Braves (6-25-2) could do at the plate as their seasonlong struggles continued. Five Bourne errors hurt the chances of Braves starter Bobby Bell (Rice) who allowed six runs on eight hits in five innings. Outfielder Ty Wright (Oklahoma) pitched the final two frames for the Braves allowing one run on two hits.

Tuesday the Braves pushed Cotuit to 11 innings before surrendering to a 4-3 defeat. Trevor Holder (Georgia) did a nice job for five innings allowing three runs, only two of which were earned, on four hits. He struck out eight. Jeff Breedlove (Oklahoma State) continued his summer of solid relief with two innings of one-hit work and Matt Gardner (Oklahoma State) came out of the pen and held the Kettleers scoreless of another one and on-third innings. The Braves cut the Cotuit lead to 2-1 with a run in the top of the third. The Kettleers went up 3-1 but a Mitch Moreland (Mississippi State) base hit in the eighth scored David Cash (Florida) and Cash then drove in Andy Goff (Wake Forest) in the ninth to tie the game.

Cotuit got to Bourne closer Andrew Carignan (UNC) in the 11th with a run on two hits.

In the first of two on Monday, the Braves took on the first-place Cotuit Kettleers. After dropping their last five in a row, Bourne toppled the league leaders coming away with a 2-0 victory.

Mickey Storey (Florida Atlantic) was outstanding for the Braves going seven and two-thirds innings holding the best hitting team on the Cape this summer to just three hits. He struck out seven and walked three in picking up his first win of the season . 

“It felt good just to go out there and throw the ball well,” Storey said. “I got ahead of hitters feeling that for the first time this summer everything went well on the mound for me. I struggled in a couple of my other starts. The start before this I felt better.”

Storey got some run support from his teammate in the bottom of the second when Cat Everatt (Tulane) and Andy Goff (Wake Forest) each had RBI singles.

“Of course it makes a difference,” Storey said of pitching with a 2-0 lead. “Once we take the lead, we have a chance to win. I always pitch as if the game was 0-0. I’d like to pitch this way everyday. I expect myself to pitch that well and hopefully I can for the rest of the season.”

“Mickey pitched very well,” Bourne Coach Harvey Shapiro said. “He commanded three pitches and he was able to use his change up effectively. It was only the second time this year that [our starter has] gone into the seventh inning. Last year we [our starters] did it 25 times in 38 games and we went six innings 35 out of 38 times last year. We haven’t gone six innings more than six or seven times this year. Our starting pitching hasn’t been consistent.”

Jeff Breedlove (Oklahoma State) finished off the eighth and Andrew Carignan (UNC) worked the ninth, picking up his third save of the summer.
“The team played well and I threw well, and we got a win,” Storey added. “I feel we can turn things around, I’ve struggled a little bit and the team has struggled a little bit, but it seems like we’re turning it around.”

Ty Wright (Oklahoma State) led the Braves at the plate finishing 2-for-4.

“We’re actually hitting better this year than we were last year when we were the divisional champs,” Coach Shapiro explained. “Another interesting thing is that we have more guys on the all-star team this year than we did last year.”

Chris Salberg (Florida Atlantic) put the Braves in a position to win in the second Monday game, but errors hurt the Bourne cause as Chatham came away with an 8-3 victory.

Salberg went four and two-thirds inning, allowing four unearned runs on five hits while striking out six. The Braves got onto the scoreboard in the bottom of the sixth when David Cash (Florida) crossed the plate on a Chatham throwing error. Bourne pushed two more across in the ninth when Adam LaPlante (Wheaton) drove a bases loaded single down the right field line. For LaPlante, a 2003 graduate of Harwich High School who played six games as a temporary player for the Brewster Whitecaps, it was his first Cape League hit.

“I felt coming in that I had a good shot,” LaPlante said. “The adjustment to wood was tough at first and we don’t see the pitching on this level at school. It was good to get that hit. The first time I faced him he threw me a fastball right down the middle, my bat dropped, and I flew out to right. I figured he’d come at me with fastballs again. The first one was a strike and I figured he was going to throw another one away, I hit it and luckily I found some grass.”

The Whitecaps had signed LaPlante as a temporary player last spring.

“They told me that if I played well I could stick around,” he said. “I didn’t play well and I got released.”
With Matt Weglarz (Missouri State) slated to leave the Cape before the end of the season for graduate school, LaPlante hopes to stick with the Braves the rest of the way.

Holding onto catchers has been one of the most difficult parts of a difficult summer for the Braves. A steady catcher behind the plate can provide a certain level of comfort for the pitching staff. This season Bourne has gone through 11 catchers and counting.

The team expected to open the season with two of the best backstops in the nation in Preston Clark (Texas) and Preston Paramore (Arizona State). Team USA grabbed Clark and Paramore was injured, suddenly leaving Bourne within days of the season opener without a catcher.
The team quickly grabbed Vincent DiFazio (Indian River) to open the season, then added Hank Lanto (William Jewell). Andrew Vicaro (Montclair State) joined the mix by the fourth game of the season. By the end of June, Lanto was gone and Drew Davis (Elon) came onboard.

By July DiFazio was gone with Vicaro not far behind. By the end of the first week of the new month Weglarz had joined Drew behind the plate.
Blake Murphy (Western Carolina) joined the catcher ranks for Bourne, but only played as a designated hitter four times before leaving with an injury. Murphy later rejoined the club, but left again before getting into another game. Josh Stinson (Texas A&M) was given a roster spot, but before he could get to the Cape, he too had his summer derailed when the coaching staff at Texas A&M decided they didn’t want him playing this summer. Paramore called to say he was ready to play and the team once again added him to the roster, but like Stinson, he never made it over the bridge. Now with Weglarz soon returning to school, LaPlante will add his name to the list of Bourne catchers and would-be catchers this summer.

“We also had Justin Breashear (Ole Miss) but he’s not coming either,” Shapiro said “That makes 11; there aren’t that may good catchers out there.”

The struggles the team has experienced in finding a set of solid catchers highlights the difficulty in team building the coaching staff has faced. The Braves dugout has had a revolving door with positional players and pitchers coming and going, making team unity and the ability to gel as a unit a tremendous task for everyone.

Ryan Wehrle (Nebraska) was injured and forced to go home this week, and Brian Leclerc (Florida) has left the team.

Sunday Bourne dropped a 5-2 decision to Yarmouth-Dennis. The Red Sox took a 5-0 lead into the eighth, but Weglarz spoiled the shutout bid with a fence-clearing blast to left field. Twenty-nine games into the season, it was the first home run hit by a Bourne Brave at the new Upper Cape Cod Regional Technical School field. In the ninth, Wright drove in Mitch Moreland (Mississippi State) with the second Bourne run.

Eammon Portice (Highpoint) got the start and gave up two runs in five innings of work, however the bullpen was unable to hold back Y-D leaving Portice with the loss. Ty Wright finished with another multihit game going 2-for-4 with an RBI.

The Braves held a one-run lead through five frames Saturday, but allowed Orleans to score twice in the bottom of the six and eventually take the win 2-1. The Cardinals helped the Bourne cause committing four errors, but the Braves couldn’t capitalize. Tom Farmer (Akron), who has done a nice job this summer, went six innings, allowing two runs on three hits. Farmer gave up six walks. Bourne scored its lone run in the top of the fourth when Cat Everett drove in Austin Krum (Dallas Baptist).

The lone highlight of Friday’s 3-1 loss to Brewster came in the fifth inning when Matt Hall (Arizona State) went deep, clearing the left centerfield fence with his first home run of the summer.

Four members of the 2006 Bourne Braves will play in the Cape Cod Baseball League All-Star game tomorrow at Red Wilson Field in South Yarmouth. David Cash will get the start in right field and will be joined by teammates Brett Bartles (Duke), Tom Farmer, and Andrew Carignan. Gates open at 11 AM. The home run hitting contest will begin at 2:30 PM with Mitch Moreland from Bourne participating. The game is scheduled to begin at 4:05 PM.

The team from the Eastern Division has won the annual contest for the last three seasons. The West will be coached by last year’s Western Division champion Bourne Braves skipper Coach Harvey Shapiro.