All night long the Falmouth Commodores were waiting for something good to happen. In the bottom of the eighth inning Ryan Jones made something really good happen for the home team.

Jones came to the plate with the bases loaded, and two outs, and smashed an opposite field grand slam to break open a 2-2 ballgame and give the Commodores their first lead of the night. Ben Tootle (Jacksonville State) finished off the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox in the ninth and the home team had pulled off another exciting victory in a season that’s been full of them.

Falmouth secured first place for at least one more day with the win in the very tight west division race. The team improved to 19-15-1 overall. The team has just nine games remaining in the regular season and a slim lead over second-place Hyannis, which kept pace with a win and is now 19-16. Bourne, the third-place club, also won and improved to 18-17.

Jones’ eighth-inning blast was his team-leading seventh homer of the year. He came to the plate after his teammates had loaded the bases without the benefit of a base hit as Y-D pitching walked three in front of him.

With one away in the eighth, the rally got started as Trevor Coleman (Missouri) was able to work a walk against Greg Peavey (Oregon State), who did not give up a hit during his stint. Peavey then issued one ball to cleanup hitter Darin Ruf (Creighton) and was lifted by manager Scott Pickler in favor of Rhett Ballard (Virginia Tech), a hard-throwing, right-handed sidewinder.

The move looked like it could work brilliantly as Ballard confounded Ruf and came back to fan him. Then, with Kevin Nolan (Winthrop) coming up, Pickler told his pitcher to intentionally walk the Falmouth third baseman to get to left fielder Brian Fletcher (Auburn), who has been struggling at the plate. The intentional walk put men on first and second for Falmouth.

Fletcher said that he came to the plate hoping to make the Red Sox pay for passing up a shot at Nolan to get to him instead. While he certainly wanted to make something big happen, he did something more important—he had a great approach at the plate. Refusing to swing at something that would get him in trouble, Fletcher waited out Ballard and gladly took a five-pitch base on balls to load the bases for Jones.

“It would have been so easy, especially as a young player, to try to do too much in that situation,” Manager Jeff Trundy said. “Brian Fletcher had a great at-bat to get us to (Jones).”

“I was just looking to hit the ball the other way and get something I could drive,” Fletcher said. “I wanted to be patient and not get myself out. I was looking for him to leave a pitch up and then make him pay for it, but when I didn’t get a pitch to hit, I was glad to take the walk.”

The walk to Fletcher loaded the bases for Jones and gave Falmouth a chance to make something happen with a left-handed hitter getting a look at the right-handed Ballard. Jones wasted no time as he jumped on the first pitch he saw and hammered it the other way, just clearing the left field fence for his seventh round-tripper of the season. The grand slam put Falmouth in control, 6-2.

“I was sitting on a fastball and I knew that (Ballard) didn’t want to give me anything I could pull....I was willing (the ball) fair, doing my best Carlton Fisk to keep it fair.”

Jones’ impersonation of the Hall of Famer worked as the ball stayed just inside the foul pole and cleared the wall to give his team its first lead of the night, and ultimately the victory.

Falmouth had been playing catch-up most of the game. Y-D took a 1-0 lead in the first on an infield RBI single by Ryan Ortiz (Oregon State). The Commodores then tied it up in the bottom of the inning as Joey Wong (Oregon State) doubled and then scored on a single to center by Ruf.

The Sox then went ahead with a run in the fourth as Andy Wilkins (Arkansas) drove in a run with a sac fly to center. Falmouth then tied it up again in the sixth when Nolan drove in Ruf, who had doubled to lead off the inning.

Reliever Nick Tepesch (Missouri) got the win in relief, his first of the year as he moved to 1-0. Nate Karns got the start and worked six strong innings, giving up two runs on five hits.

The Commodores, winners of three in a row and four of their last five, host second-place Hyannis tonight at 7. Thursday they visit Bourne.