Things got a bit dicey late in the game, but the Falmouth Commodores held on for an edge-of-the-seat 7-6 win over Chatham last night at the Arnie Allen Diamond at Guv Fuller Field. The victory was the team’s second in a row and got them back above .500, at 3-2, in the early going.

     After seeing a four-run lead disappear, the Commodores struck back to score the eventual winning run in the bottom of the seventh. Chatham had scored four times in the top of the frame to knot the game, but Jimmy Cesario (Houston) led off the bottom of the inning with a double to the left-center field gap and would later score on a fielder’s choice off the bat of Justin Miller (Ohio State) to make it a 7-6 game.

     Ben Tootle (Jacksonville State), who came on to put out the fire in the seventh, worked the eighth and ninth innings as well and earned his first win of the year. Tootle pitched around an almost costly error by his catcher, Trevor Coleman (Missouri) in the ninth. After striking out the first man of the inning, Tootle also got Victor Sanchez (San Diego) to wave at strike three in the dirt. The ball hit off the ground and appeared to hit Coleman in the hand. He came up with it to throw out Sanchez at first and air-mailed the delivery into right field. Sanchez hustled around to third, giving Chatham unexpected life. 

     Tootle, though, didn’t give the A’s anything to celebrate. He struck out the next batter and then ended the game with a grounder to third.

     Over the first four innings the Commodores could not figure out A’s starter Joe Serafin (Vermont), managing just three softly struck base hits. In the fifth, though, the home team came alive.

     Falmouth exploded for six runs in the fifth, with Ryan Jones’s three-run homer highlighting things for the Commodores. AJ Wirnsberger (Georgia Southern) started the rally for Falmouth with a single to left and then the team’s other AJ, Pollack of Notre Dame, smoked a ground-rule double down the left field line to put two runners in scoring position for the home team as they looked to get back into a game that they trailed 2-0 at the time.

     Second-year Commodore Joey Wong (Oregon State) put his team on the board with a single that didn’t get by the infield grass. The speedy Wong’s infield hit plated Wirnsberger to make it a 2-1 game and then a sacrifice fly to right field by Coleman knotted things up at 2-2. 

     Falmouth kept the rally going, loading the bases with a walk to Darin Ruf (Creighton) and an infield single by Cesario. Hitting with the sacks full, second baseman Kevin Nolan (Winthrop) put his team ahead for the first time in the game with the second sac fly of the inning, driving one deep enough to right to make it a 3-2 game. That set the stage for Jones, who came to the dish looking for his first hit of the young season, after having gone hitless over his first five at-bats. Jones hammered an outside fastball that carried and carried, clearing the wall to make it 6-2.

     It looked like the Commodores were in the clear, leading by four, but the A’s came right back to knot the score up with four of their own in the top of the seventh. Evan Danielli (Notre Dame) got himself out of a bases-loaded, no-outs jam in the fifth and then cruised through the sixth, but he had a hard time finding the strike zone during his third inning of work as two walks, two singles and a hit batsman led to a four-run frame and a different ballgame altogether. 

     Wednesday night the Commodores had the hit sticks out as they pounded out a dozen safeties in their 8-4 win over visiting Orleans on Opening Night at the Arnie Allen Diamond at Guv Fuller Field. Pollack, the league’s leader in runs scored, went 3-for-5 in the game and scored three times. Wirnsberger went 3-for-4 out of the nine spot in the order for the home team. 

     Falmouth wasted no time getting out to a lead, staking themselves to a 5-0 advantage after two. The team would then put up another three spot in the sixth to put the game away.

     Pollack got it started for the Commodores with a leadoff single and took third on a one-out hit by Coleman. Pollack then scored on a wild pitch by Orleans’ starter, Caleb Cotham. Falmouth would score again later in the first when Ruf walked, stole second and scored on a throwing error.

     In the second the team put up three runs with all of the damage coming with two away. Orleans pitching got the first two men, but then Wirnsberger continued his big night with a single to right and went to third on a double by Pollack. Wong then walked to load the bases.

     Coleman came up in a big spot and delivered, driving a two-run single to center field that scored both Wirnsberger and Pollack. Ruf followed that hit with a rope to left to make it a 5-0 game.

     Orleans got two runs back against Commodores starter Nate Karns in the top of the third. A couple of walks and a double steal set up the rally. One run would score on a fielder’s choice and then Karns uncorked a wild pitch that allowed the second run to come in.

     The Whitecaps closed to within two runs when they added another to their count in the fifth inning. However, the Commodores put up a three spot in the sixth to make it an 8-3 game. Wirnsberger started things off with a single and Pollack, who was in the middle of all three of the scoring rallies in the game, followed with a single of his own. Facing a new hurler, Wong laid down a nice bunt that went for a single. A throwing error on the play allowed Wirnsberger to score and put two men in scoring position for the Commodores.

     A wild pitch allowed Pollack to score, making it 7-3, and put Wong on third. Ruf then finished off the rally with a double.

     On Tuesday night the Commodores came out on the short end of a pitchers’ duel, 2-1, in Orleans. Falmouth pitching surrendered just six hits in the game, but they were bettered by the Cardinals staff, which combined to limit the visitors to four. Reliever Adam Wilk got the win for Orleans while the Commodores Shaeffer Hall, who worked the sixth and seventh innings, suffered the defeat.