21 June 2007


Cape Leaguers battle through first week of season

By Matt Rice and Jason Cook
GateHouse News Service
Fri Jun 22, 2007, 08:20 AM EDT 

Brewster - Now that the Cape League has finally gotten into full swing of their season, here’s a look at how each of the team fared in their first week of the 2007 summer season.

Chatham A’s:
     After losses to Harwich and Y-D to start their season, the Chatham A’s finally gave their fans something to cheer about on Tuesday night as they used back-to-back bloop singles in the ninth inning to walk off with a stunning 3-2 victory over Wareham.
     The game seemed destined for extras after Chatham reliever Bryan Shaw gave up a game tying home run to Wareham left fielder Dean Blake with two outs in the top of the eighth.
     But Chatham second basemen Travis Beausoleil who had only two hits -both singles - coming into Tuesday’s game, managed to drop a bloop hit into shallow left allowing Addison Johnson to score the winning run.
     The A’s made it two wins in a row on Wednesday night, scoring three runs in the top of the seventh, then holding off a late charge by the Bourne Braves to win 4-3. The win over Bourne bumps the A’s record to an even 3-3 on the season.

Orleans Cardinals:
     Three Cardinal pitchers combined for a 1-0 shutout of the Wareham Gatemen on Wednesday evening, giving Orleans their third win of the season.
     Chase D’Arnaud’s second inning home run proved to be the difference as the threesome of Michael Schwimer, Kyle Kamppi and Ryan Perry combined for 11 strikeouts and allowed only three walks in the win.
     The Cardinals started their season with losses to Brewster, Hyannis and Chatham before finally getting into the win column with a 4-2 victory over Bourne on Monday.

Brewster Whitecaps:
     The Whitecaps find themselves trailing only the undefeated Y-D Red Sox in the Eastern Division after winning their last three games.
     Brewster can attribute their winning streak to their hit starting pitching, which currently leads the league with a 1.47 team ERA.
     On Wednesday, starter Brad Kledzick and Chris Kupillas combined for a five-hit shutout of the Hyannis Met’s on Wednesday.
     Danny Lima continued to be a force at the plate for the Whitecaps, connecting for another three hits during Wednesday’s 4-0 win. Lima is currently batting .455.
     Former Nauset grad, Jake Yagjian made an appearance at second base for the Whitecaps on Wednesday.

Harwich Mariners:
     The Mariners opened their 2007 summer season with a 9-4 win over Chatham on Friday, in what turned out to be a shortened five-inning game thanks to a power failure at Whitehouse Field.
     The Mariners got four runs in the bottom of the first, four more in the third and another run in the fifth to take the lead before the lights went out for good.
     Steve Strausbaugh went one-for-three and drove in two runs to lead the Mariners offense. Starting pitcher Danny Farquhar pitched well in the shortened outing, striking out 11 batters in five innings of work to pick up the Mariners first win of the season.
     The A’s had trouble in the field, committing four errors, which lead to four Mariner runs, which proved to be the difference.
     On Saturday, the Mariners shutout the Wareham Gatemen 3-0 thanks to strong five innings by starter Dan Hudson, who didn’t allow a run while giving up two hits and striking out seven.
Strausbaugh had two hits on the night, including an RBI single in the fifth inning to lead the Mariners to their second win on the season.
     The Mariners suffered their first loss of the season on Sunday when the undefeated Bourne Braves outlasted Harwich with an 8-7, 10-inning win.
     The Mariners had a shot to take the lead in the bottom of the tenth, but Strausbaugh was thrown out at home trying to score from first on a double by Matt Miller.
     Bourne won the game in the bottom of the inning on a bases loaded walk by Mark Willinsky.
     The Mariners tried to bounce back against Hyannis on Monday, but couldn’t find any offense against Mets starter Andrew Doyle, who pitched seven innings and allowed just one run.
     The bats continued to struggle on Tuesday as the Mariners fell to the Whitecaps 4-1. They bounced back against Cotuit the following night, thanks to some solid pitching by starter Michael Cisco, who allowed just two runs in seven innings during Harwich’s 3-1 win.