Gatemen snap 2-game skid, beat Mariners 6-1
July 20, 2018 8:37 pm | by Andrew Lang
Gatemen snap 2-game skid, beat Mariners 6-1
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HARWICH – The Gatemen snapped their two-game losing streak last night beating the Harwich Mariners 6-1.
Wareham got excellent pitching from the trio of Derek West, Tyler Keysor, and Cody Carroll to secure the win. Gatemen pitching surrendered six hits and allowed just eight base runners all night.
West got his first start of the summer for Wareham and he did not disappoint. West allowed the only Mariners’ run to score as he went 4+ innings while striking out five.
His best inning of work came in the second when he retired the side in order and it also happened to be the inning the Gatemen took the lead.
Jakob Goldfarb started off the top of the second with a single, his first of two. Lael Lockhart Jr. followed it up with a walk, and then Ryan Kreidler put the Gatemen ahead by singling to left field to drive in the game’s first run. Luke Roskam was hit by a pitch and then the bases were loaded with no outs.
Lockhart scored the second run of the inning advancing home on a wild pitch and Skyler Hunter continued his at-bat by walking to reload the bases.
From there, Harwich’s starter Austin Wood dialed in. Wood fanned the next three hitters he faced to strand the bases loaded after only allowing two runs.
Wood also struck out the side in the third to bring his punchout total to six straight and he even struck out Kreidler to begin the fourth, making it seven in a row.
“He got is breaking ball over then he got confidence and got in a rhythm. This game is all about rhythm. You have to get their pitcher out of rhythm and he got into rhythm and we didn’t do anything about it,” Gatemen manager Don Sneddon said. “He made it look easy and didn’t look like the same pitcher.”
Just as quickly as Wood got into rhythm, he fell out of it again. The next seven Wareham hitters reached base safely as the Gatemen broke the game open with a 4-run inning, extending their lead to 6-0.
Roskam snapped the strikeout streak by drawing a one out walk and advanced to second on a single by Hunter. Sahid Valenzuela drew the second walk of the inning which ended the day for Wood.
Austin Shenton was due up next for Wareham and he hit the first pitch he faced off Harwich reliever Cal Krueger. The ball was hit towards Tanner Morris, who just entered the game that inning to play shortstop, but he misplayed it and two runs came around to score on the error.
Jeremy Ydens followed that up by singling to put Wareham ahead 5-0 and Pavin Parks followed suite with an RBI single of his own and the bases were still loaded.
However, Wareham would go scoreless from that point on in the game. Lockhart Jr. and Kreidler struck out to end the fourth, leaving three runners on.
In the fifth, the Gatemen once again had the bases loaded but left all three runners on. In total, Wareham had loaded the bases three times within the first five innings of the game, but only had six runs to show for it. Through the first five innings, Wareham left 10 men on base and 12 for the entire game.
“The positives are we had men on base and the negatives are that we did not score them. We just talked about that. I think we struck out 14 times and that is just with average pitching; that was not dominating pitching,” Sneddon said.
In the bottom of the fifth, West ran into some trouble. After giving up a run the previous inning making it a 6-1 game, West gave up a double and walked a batter to start off the fifth. He would throw one more pitch to the next hitter, but then he was quickly subbed for Tyler Keysor.
With his three scoreless innings, Keysor lowered his ERA to 5.40 (via Caroline O’Connor).
Keysor retired the next two hitters he faced before allowing the runners to move into scoring position when he balked. From there, he got the Mariners three-hole hitter to ground out to second base and end the threat.
“West got a little tired at the end there, but then Keysor did a great job of getting us out of the inning. That was the key for that whole game,” Sneddon said.
Keysor cruised over his next two innings of work allowing just two hits and he even picked up his first win of the summer. To end his night, Keysor struck out the side in the seventh. Overall, Keysor fanned six Harwich hitters in a game Sneddon called his best of the summer.
“He established his fastball and he’s got a nasty changeup. It’s a good pitch when he throws it over the middle of the plate and let the action take care of it,” Sneddon said.
Cody Carroll relieved Keysor and threw two scoreless innings to complete the win for Wareham. Carroll struck out the last batter he faced to bring the Gatemen strikeout total to 13 on the night.
With the win, the Gatemen now sit just one point back of the Hyannis Harbor Hawks for first place in the West Division. According to Sneddon though, his club is just focused on the task at hand, not the overarching picture.
“My goal with these guys is to get better every game. I haven’t really seen the standings, but I know we can’t be in first. I know that just because of the losses we have. Right now, we are taking each game and trying to get better,” Sneddon said.
“You can’t control what’s ahead of you. It’s not going to change the way we play. It’s really of no interest. People tell me if we were in the other division we would already be in the playoffs and all that, but for us the bottom line is we play Bourne who has been difficult for us and we need to get a win.”
Final: Gatemen 6, Mariners 1
W- Tyler Keysor (3 IP, 2 H, 6 K, 0 ER)
L- Austin Wood (3.1 IP, 4 H, 5 ER, 4 BB, 8 K)
Next up: The Gatemen (19-13-1) will be home Friday night to play the Bourne Braves (14-17-1). First pitch at 6:30 p.m. at Spillane Field in Wareham.
