By Kathleen Szmit
kszmit@barnstablepatriot.com

     The Cotuit Kettleers may not have made it into the Cape Cod Baseball League playoffs, but they still have one tournament at stake.

     This weekend the Kettleers face their cross-town rivals, the Hyannis Mets, in back-to-back games that will determine the winner of the 2007 Barnstable Patriot Cup.

     The Mets hold a one-game lead, with overall tourney stats standing at 2-1-1. Should the Mets (whose league playoff hopes depend on a do-or-die game versus the Commodores tonight at 7 in Falmouth) take Saturday night’s game in Hyannis against the Kettleers, they will claim the Cup for the first time since its inception in 2004 when they were the first winners.

     Recognizing that Barnstable is the only Cape town with two teams in the CCBL, the Patriot created a trophy to help fuel the friendly rivalry between the two teams with the Cup being awarded to the team that has won the majority of their six season games.

     This season the Kettleers claimed the first game back on June 17. The Mets evened things up on June 24 when they took Game Two. Game Three ended in a tie, with the game called on account of weather on July 4. The Mets took the lead on July 14 when they defeated the Kettleers 6-1.