Night baseball returned to Hyannis last night as the Falmouth Commodores and the home team played the first game under the new lights at McKeon Field. While the contest might have been illuminated well, it didn’t seem to help either team’s offense much.

     For the second game in a row the Falmouth Commodores were able to collect their fair share of hits. However, in the season’s second game, the Commodores weren’t able to push across many runs. Actually, the team failed to score any runs. Hyannis pitching scattered eight Falmouth hits, while striking out 10 batters in the game, as the home team won a divisional contest, 1-0. Falmouth is now 1-1 overall while the Mets take the lead in the west division at 2-0. 

     Late in the game Falmouth had chances to tie the contest, but each time they came up short, stranding runners in scoring position. The Commodores were able to move men into scoring position in three of the last four innings, but each time could not come up with the big hit needed to get it across the plate. “We had some good chances, and I thought we had some good at-bats, but we just couldn’t get that one timely hit that we needed,” Manager Jeff Trundy said.

     Designated hitter Trevor Coleman (Missouri) gave the team some hope in the top of the ninth, lining a single against Hyannis closer Russell Brewer (Vanderbilt) to lead things off. Brewer, though, was up to the task as he picked up his second save of the year, working around the leadoff knock.

     The hard-throwing Brewer, who has saved both of the Mets’ victories so far, got the first out of the frame when Kevin Nolan (Winthrop) bunted Coleman into scoring position. Coleman would get to third when the next man, Rob Segiden (Tulane) hit a long fly out to center field. Coleman tagged to take third, but ended the night standing there when Brewer got AJ Wirnsberger (Georgia Southern) to pop out to shortstop to close things out.

     There were no fireworks associated with the game’s first run. Falmouth starter Rex Brothers (Lipsocomb) began to run out of gas and had a hard time finding the strike zone in the bottom of the fourth. Brothers issued four bases on balls in the fourth, forcing in Luke Murton (Georgia Tech), who had walked to lead things off. He did, though, get out of a bases loaded jam by coming back to strike out Stephen Ashcraft (East Carolina) on a nice inside fastball.

     Brothers only gave up the one run in his debut start of the summer. Hyannis managed three hits over his four innings, with one earned run as he walked five and struck out four.

     Falmouth native Scott McNee (WPI) made his first Cape League start for the Commodores. McNee handled right field duties for the team and connected on his first hit of the year in the top of the sixth, grounding a single past the dive of Hyannis second baseman Casey Frawley. Center fielder AJ Pollack (Notre Dame) followed with a single to right to put two men on with two down.

     The Mets put out the fire, though, by going to their bullpen. Reliever Ashur Tolliver, a hard-throwing lefty, came in to get Joey Wong (Oregon State) to fly out to left as the Mets’ Steve Daniels (Brown) made a great diving grab and nearly doubled up McNee at second. Tolliver then got Jimmy Cesario (Houston) to fly out to left as well to end the threat.

Commodores 9, Gatemen 2

     On Friday night the Commodores traveled to Wareham to open up the new season and came away with a convincing 9-2 win over the Gatemen. Reliever Chad Bettis (Texas Tech) picked up the victory on the hill as he worked five strong innings of relief. 

     The Commodores broke open a close game by scoring seven runs over the last four innings of play. The Falmouth relief staff combined to shut out the Gatemen over the final five innings of the game.

     With the score tied at 2-2, Falmouth took the lead for good with a single run in the top of the sixth. Center fielder AJ Pollack (Notre Dame) reached on a fielding error by Wareham’s third baseman and then stole second on a botched pickoff attempt. Pollack went to third on a single by shortstop Kevin Nolan (Winthrop), who had a huge night for the Commodores, collecting four hits in his first game in the team’s uniform. With men on the corners, second baseman Jimmy Cesario (Houston) beat out a double play ball for a fielder’s choice as Nolan was erased at second, but the go-ahead run scored to make it 3-2.

     Falmouth got another run in the top of the seventh to make it a 4-2 game. With two down, and AJ Wirnsberger (Georgia Southern) on second, after a walk and wild pitch, left fielder Dominic DiRicco (Cornell) picked up his first run batted in on the season. DiRicco drove a single to left to plate Wirnsberger as he touched up Wareham reliever Josh Slaats.

     Up by a pair, the Commodores put the game out of reach by pushing across two in the eighth and then three in the ninth. Nolan started the rally in the eighth with a homer to left to lead the frame off as the New Hampshire resident became the first Cape Leaguer this season to leave the yard. Cesario then kept the hit parade going for Falmouth with a single to right, and catcher Trevor Coleman followed with a double to left to put two men in scoring position.

     That brought in a new reliever for Wareham, Zach Brewster, who didn’t bring a lot of relief to the Wareham coaching staff right away. One of the first offerings from the pitcher went to the backstop for a wild pitch, allowing Cesario to score to make it 6-2 Commodores. Brewster settled down to get out of the jam from there, but the Commodores were well out in front.

     Eight Falmouth batters hit in the ninth as the team put up three more to finish off the Gatemen. Miller started the rally with a single and then later scored on Nolan’s fourth hit. Cesario’s sac fly made it 8-2 and then Coleman drove in another run with a single.

     The lone low point for Falmouth was that starter Alex Wilson had to leave the game early after just two innings of work. The hard-throwing righty took a line drive off the arm in the second inning that forced him from continuing.

     Bettis got the win with five innings of four-hit ball. He gave up one run, struck out six and walked two.