15 Aug 2007


Winning is becoming a habit for Y-D Red Sox


Photo by David Colantuono
Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox manager Scott Pickler has led his team to two Cape League championships in a row and three in four years.

It was all very simple. Good hitting, good pitching and good defense gave the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox their second straight Cape Cod Baseball League title and their third in the last four years.

The Red Sox cruised, just as they did all season long in the regular season, through the playoffs, first dispatching the Chatham A’s in two games in the first round and then sweeping the Falmouth Commodores in the championship series.

Tuesday night the Red Sox wrapped it up with a taut 2-0 win at Falmouth’s Guv Fuller Field.

It took a suicide squeeze by Nick Romero (San Diego State) in the eighth inning to break the scoreless tie and the Red Sox got their second run when Jason Castro (Stanford) scored on a passed ball.

Falmouth starter Christian Friedrich (Eastern Kentucky) struggled with his control early but managed to pitch himself out of jams several times. After loading the bases in the second with two outs on a single and two walks he induced a ground ball right to Jeremy Farrell (Virginia) at first base from Joe Railey (San Francisco) to end the threat. 

Friedrich was in a tight spot again in the fifth inning after walking Railey and giving up a single to first baseman Grant Green (Southern California) that moved Railey to third. With the heart of the order up in Buster Posey (Florida State), Castro and home run king Gordon Beckham (Georgia), Y-D looked poised to take the lead, but Friedrich buckled down, getting all three batters to strike out swinging, masterfully mixing his curveball with his 90 MPH-plus fastball.

Friedrich was replaced by right-handed pitcher Brett Graffy (Notre Dame) after five innings of work. He struck out six batters, walked four and gave up three hits. Graffy was the losing pitcher for the Commodores since he was responsible for both Posey and Castro reaching base.

Red Sox starter Trevor Holder (Georgia) did more than his share keeping Falmouth off the scoreboard in dominating fashion. The righthander, who went 4-1 on the regular season with a miniscule 0.89 ERA, allowed only one base runner through six innings, Andrew Giobbi (Vanderbilt), who reached on a line drive single in the third. 

After collecting his eighth and ninth strikeouts of the night, Holder allowed the first Commodore to reach scoring position by giving up consecutive walks to outfielders Aja Barto (Tulane) and John Wallace (Oregon State) in the seventh inning. He managed to pitch himself out of the hole he had pitched himself into however by striking out Farrell for the last out of the inning.

Holder went eight innings, striking out 10 Falmouth batters, giving up just one hit and two walks to collect his fifth and undoubtedly most memorable win of the season. After the game Holder summed up his experience on the Cape in a few simple words. “It was the best summer of my life.”

Falmouth fans were given a glimmer of hope when third baseman Phil Carey (Winthrop) doubled off of closer Nick Cassavechia (Baylor). But the 4,800 fans at Guv Fuller Field, most of them Commodore faithful, would be let down as Cassevechia struck out the side in the ninth to collect the save for Y-D.

A solid season

The Red Sox tore through the regular season, starting it off with a six-game winning streak and then cruising to a league best 31-12-1 record.

Throughout the season and the playoffs, the Red Sox seemed to come up with the big hit or the big defensive play or the clutch pitching performance whenever they needed it.

CCBL Manager of the year Scott Pickler had every right to be proud of his team.

“They’re a great group of kids. They played hard all year. It was a fun group to coach. They just went out and busted their butts. They had a good year, and now they have a chance to make it a great year,” said Pickler after Y-D won the first game at home before a large crowd at Red Wilson field, 8-2.

And that they did.

The Red Sox methodically dismantled the Commodores in the first game, getting things started in a big way with a leadoff home run in the bottom of the first inning by Green.

Posey, the second batter, reached base on an error and then took third on a ground out by Castro.

Beckham then hit a long fly ball to left field; Posey tagged up and scored easily to give the Red Sox an early 2-0 lead.
In the bottom of the second Y-D got two more runs. 

Colin Cowgill of Kentucky walked and then stole second base. Railey then hit a hard grounder right down the first base line, eluding the diving attempt of Falmouth’s Farrell for an RBI double.

Matt Long (Santa Clara) put down a perfectly placed bunt that left Falmouth’s third baseman Carey looking for someplace to throw the ball.

With men on first and third, Green grounded out to first, but it was enough to send Railey home from third and gave the red Sox a 4-0 lead after just two innings.

“We got off to a good start, and then we played good defense. That’s what it comes down to: pitching and defense when you get this far,” said Pickler.

Essentially, at that point, it was all over for the Commodores, who managed to score a run on two wild pitches by Y-D’s Terry Doyle, of Boston College, in the fourth inning and another run in the sixth, with the Red Sox leading 5-1, on a sacrifice fly.

Doyle started out well, striking out two batters in the first inning and another in the second, but had control problems and struggled off and on before leaving the game after 6 1/3 innings.

Still he earned the win, topping off a great career in the Cape League. It was the 13th win in his two-years with the Red Sox.
Green gave the Y-D that 5-1 lead with his second home run of the game in the bottom of the fourth inning.

It was the sixth home run for the Red Sox in three playoff games, for the team that led the league in homers with 41 during the regular season.

The Red Sox opened the playoffs with a tough 4-3 win over Chatham in which they trailed 2-1 going into the bottom of the eighth.
And then came the big hit.

Cowgill led off the inning with a homer to tie the game. 

After Green walked and Posey singled, Castro drove in the go-ahead run with another single.

It appeared to be all over when the Red Sox brought in their closer, Cassavechia, who led the league with 11 saves and was named the Cape League’s relief pitcher of the year.

But Cassavechia was a bit wild and Chatham scored to tie the game again when Addison Johnson streaked home on a pitch in the dirt that got past Posey, the Y-D catcher.

Once again the Red Sox came up with the clutch hit as Matt Long, batting ninth in the order, hit a sharp grounder that took two high bounces in the infield before dropping into shallow right field.

That was enough to score Nick Romero (San Diego State) from second with the winning run.

“These guys hit 1 through 9. There’s not a weak spot in the line up. There’s a threat every time we’re up,” said Pickler.

The second game in Chatham was a pitcher’s duel through most of the game between Y-D’s Scott Green (Kentucky) and Chatham’s Tom Milone (USC), who finished the regular season with a 6-1 record and was named pitcher of the year.

Milone was tough. He gave up only four hits, but two were home runs, the first coming in the first inning as Beckham, who led the league with 9 home runs and tied for the lead in RBI with 35, hit a two-run shot over the left field fence in Chatham.

The second one came in the eighth inning when Romero drove the ball deep into right center and over the fence into the crowd watching the game on the hill.

Meanwhile Green was quietly effective, giving up only 5 hits and allowing no runs in 6 1/3 innings to earn the victory.

Castro hit another home run off Chatham’s Kevin Couture (USC), a laser shot that cleared the left field fence in a flash.

The Red Sox won convincingly, dominatingly, 4-0, scoring all four runs on homers.

And they continued that dominance into the finals against Falmouth.

Going into the second game of the finals against Falmouth and facing the prospect of winning two consecutive CCBL championships and three in the last four years, Pickler characteristically said, “They want to do it (win the championship) for the people of Yarmouth who have treated them so well all summer long.”


CCBL intern Kevin Wolfe contributed to this report.