Brandon Pfaadt shut down the powerful Kettleers offense in 6-0 win
June 19, 2019 9:09 pm | by Andrew Lang
Brandon Pfaadt shut down the powerful Kettleers offense in 6-0 win
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COTUIT- The Gatemen offense stayed hot with 13 hits and the Wareham pitching staff neutralized a powerful offense in a 6-0 win over the Cotuit Kettleers.
Darren Baker (Cal Berkeley) made it 7 out of 8 games with a with a hit recording a single in the 1stinning. Albrey Major (Xavier) continued his hot start to the season punishing a soft breaking ball into right field putting a runner in scoring position. Baker prevented any damage making a phenomenal jumping catch for one out and started a double-play to end the inning.
Evan Justice (NC State) struggled with his control walking 2 batters in the 2ndinning. Tora Otsuka (San Diego) made Justice pay hitting an RBI single with the bases loaded giving the Gatemen a 1-0 lead. Braiden Ward (Washington) made it 2-0 on an RBI groundout and Baker just hitting balls for fun at this point roped an RBI double making it 3-0 Gatemen.
Dallas Beaver (UCF) made his presence felt in his first game with the Gatemen going 3-5 on 3 singles. Braiden Ward (Washington) almost took out Justice on a hard liner sending home 2 runs extending the lead to 5-0 in the 4thinning.
“I have played in two other summer leagues so this was not too big of an adjustment for me” Beaver said. “It’s been about 4 or 5 weeks since I was last on the field so it was exciting for me to just be out there and trying to help us get a win.”
Christopher Holcomb (Tulane) relieved Justice and got out of the inning, but not before Baker completed his 3rd3 hit game of the season in only Wareham’s 8thgame hitting a single. Brandon Pfaadt (Bellarmine) came in for Joseph Baran (East Stroudsburg) in the 4thinning.
Mike Antico (St. Johns) tallied his 5thRBI of the season on an RBI single in the 5thinning giving the Gatemen a 6-0 lead.
From the 5thinning on, the Gatemen completely neurtralized the high power Cotuit offense. This was all thanks to Pfaadt, who was in the zone, going 5 innings retiring 13 of 15 batters faced only allowing 2 hits and striking out 6 batters.
“At first I couldn’t locate my curve ball, but huge credit to Jim he told me to aim it right at them and from there I felt really good out there” Pfaadt said. “It’s awesome having run support like this, it makes my pitching just that much easier.”
It was a great offensive night for Wareham as well with all starting players getting a hit besides one. The Gatemen have the best batting average in the CCBL and it showed as the team compiled a total of 13 hits.
Ben Leeper (Oklahoma State) made his CCBL debut in the 9thfor the Gatemen and he secured the 6-0 victory. The Wareham Gatemen improve to (5-2-1) on the season while the Cotuit Kettleers fall to (4-3-1). The Gatemen are back in action tomorrow night hosting the Harwich Mariners (3-4) weather permitting with rain expected to be in the forecast.
Photo by: Kristin Ostrowski
