Braves Beat Up Gatemen, but Wareham Still Clinches
August 2, 2017 7:56 pm | by Andrew Lang
Braves Beat Up Gatemen, but Wareham Still Clinches
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Wareham’s potential end of the regular season run has hit a brick wall.
On Wednesday night the Gatemen allowed double-digit runs for the second straight contest as they fell to the Bourne Braves, 13-4, at Doran Park.
In nearly identical fashion, Wareham saw their opponent once again post up seven runs over the course of the first four frames of the contest to put the Gatemen offense out of reach before the game reached its middle innings.
The Braves cranked out 18 hits five of them going for extra bases.
Mason Feole made the start for the Gatemen and after turning in three consecutive solid performances had trouble in the early going.
Bourne grabbed three runs off Feole in the bottom of the first inning as Richard Palacios, Scott Schreiber, and Jameson Hannah lined three straight RBI singles to put the Braves up 3-0 after one.
While Feole limited the damage over the following two innings, Bourne was still able to get to the University of Connecticut left-hander.
Lyle Lin lofted a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the second that scored Grant Witherspoon to put the Braves up 4-0, and Schreiber crushed a 1-2 high fastball over the fence in left-center field to hand Bourne a 5-0 lead.
Gatemen coach Don Sneddon said Bourne dominated the contest.
“Everything they put in play was a base hit,” said Sneddon. “Balls on the ground, in the air, in the alley they just picked us apart. It was a thorough domination of the game.”
An aura of uncertainly swirled around Doran Park as the game progressed with Gatemen fans focusing their attention both on the ballgame in front of them as well as the Hyannis-Falmouth contest going on at McKeon Park.
As the evening slowly turned the Braves way, all eyes turned to see whether or not the Harbor Hawks would prolong the race for the fourth and final playoff spot for another day.
Luckily for the Gatemen that proved not to be the case as the Commodores were able to hold off Hyannis, 7-6, solidifying Wareham’s third consecutive playoff birth.
Wareham will be the fourth seed and take on either Falmouth or Cotuit in the first round of the Cape Cod Baseball League playoffs scheduled to begin on Saturday.
The loss, meanwhile, is the Gatemen’s ninth in their last 11 games and sends them into their final game of the regular season 2-3 against the Braves on the season.
Down 5-0 Wareham got a run back in the top of the fourth on an RBI groundout off the bat of Jake Anchia, but the Gatemen stranded a pair in scoring position making them unable to get back in the game.
Sneddon mentioned he hopes the new additions of Joe Drpich, Giovanni Dicong, and Randy Tavares provides some more flexibility.
“I don’t know them well enough to know right now,” said Sneddon. “You are going to see bigger runs on the board in these games at the end of this season and we are going to need to start answering. Hopefully they can help us out.”
Wareham’s second run of the game came courtesy of Kyle Kasser in the top half of the fifth on an RBI single up the middle to cut the deficit to 7-2, but Bourne scored six times in the bottom of the seventh to put the game firmly out of reach.
Next Up: The Gatemen close out their regular season schedule as they take on Bourne at Spillane Field. First pitch is scheduled for 630pm.
