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August 3, 2023 3:54 pm | by Joanna Dwyer
In their final game of the season on Wednesday night, the Gatemen fell to the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox 10-3.
Key defensive plays helped the Gatemen to avoid major damage. Although the the Red Sox put up a run in both the second and the third innings, Wareham forced them to leave four runners stranded in those two innings alone. Yarmouth-Dennis left 15 total runners on base in the night.
The Red Sox offense wove together a strong attack in the top of the fourth. Gatemen starting pitcher Bryson Shaffer (Coastal Carolina) was relieved by Quinn Holt after three innings of work. The lefty allowed just one earned run on five hits. Yarmouth-Dennis put two runners on with two outs when Holt came in, however, and a three-run bomb increased their lead 5-0.
The sixth inning provided action on both sides of the frame. After Riley Eikhoff (Coastal Carolina) faced the minimum in the fifth, Packy Bradley-Cooney (Campbell transfer) came in for the sixth. Bradley-Cooney loaded the bases as he struggled to find the strike zone. Two bases loaded walks would extend the Yarmouth-Dennis lead 7-0 before Joshua Lanham (Lenoir-Rhyne) entered the game to finish the inning but not before a wild pitch by Lanham allowed another run to score.
In the bottom of the sixth, the Gatemen looked to get on the board. Grant Sherrod (USC Upstate) continued his strong offensive night with a leadoff single followed by a Grant Hussey (West Virginia) walk. Both runners moved into scoring position, taking advantage of the Red Sox wild pitch. Another wild pitch allowed Sherrod to cross the dish for the first Gatemen run and move Hussey just 90 feet from home. Garen Caulfield (Arizona) walked to put runners on the corners. Josh Stevenson (Ohio State transfer) approached the plate as a pinch hitter before heading to first on a walk to load the bases. Jedier Hernandez (Missouri transfer) shot a long sacrifice fly to bring Hussey home and make the score 8-2 through six innings.
The Red Sox tacked on two more runs in the seventh before being shut out for the final two innings. Sherrod looked to end his tenure with Wareham with a bang. The count sat at 2-1 in the bottom of the ninth inning as Sherrod launched a leadoff home run into the outfield bleachers for his third of the season.
“My goal (this summer) was to show here and you know I think I did a pretty good job of that,” Sherrod said.
Many players, like Sherrod, will look to bring their experience from their time in the Cape Cod League back to their college play.
“You’re facing high level players,” Sherrod said. “You gotta show up every day and work hard and that’s something I’ve been trying to do all year. You can’t get too low, can’t get too high. Just show up everyday the same guy.”
The Gatemen finished the 2023 season with a record of 15-27-2 as they go into the offseason and look towards 2024.
