Harwich, Mass. — A day after shutting out the Y-D Red Sox 5-0, the Chatham Anglers were held scoreless against the first place Harwich Mariners, 6-0.

The Mariners scored early and often off of starter Tom Cosgrove (1-1), as they tagged the left-hander for all six runs over the first four innings.

Chatham hitters were held to just four hits all game while Harwich pitchers combined for six strikeouts on the night. Ryan McAuliffe (2-0) earned the win for the Mariners after pitching six scoreless innings.

“[McAuliffe] changed speeds very well, mixed it up,” said manager John Schiffner. [The Mariners] made some nice defensive plays, kept us off stride.”

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The trouble began in the bottom of the first for Chatham when Pavin Smith dropped a double down the right field line. One batter later, Smith would come home on a Joe Dunand hit that also found its way fair, straddling the foul line in right field. Dunand was thrown out trying to stretch his single into a double.

Matters only worsened for Cosgrove, as the Mariners pushed three more runs across in the next inning.

Johnny Adams doubled in Austin Filiere from first before coming around on a Nick Feight single two batters later. Feight would later score on a base knock by Ernie Clement.

After putting two men on in the top of the first, Anglers hitters made little noise on the day, sitting back after watching Harwich jump out to an early lead. 

“I thought we could have gotten some runs in the first inning, and they came right back at us right away,” said Schiffner. “They kind of jumped on us early and we settled back and got a little flat.”

The Mariners would put the game out of reach in the fourth inning after singles by Smith and Dunand plated two more runs.

Reed Howell came on in relief for Cosgrove after the Manhattan product doled out six runs over the course of three and a third innings.

In his fifth appearance for Chatham, Howell allowed just three hits and struck out two over two and two-thirds innings of relief. The scoreless outing lowered the right-hander’s ERA to 2.53.

“He just goes out and just accumulates innings, and doesn’t give up a lot of runs,” said Schiffner. “He keeps us in the neighborhood, it was a good job again by him [today].”

Though Howell is signed as a temporary player for the Anglers, he has been arguably the team’s best reliever and leaves Schiffner with an interesting decision about how to move forward with the pitcher. “At this point, we still don’t know,” commented the skipper.

Chatham will be back in action tomorrow at home against the Bourne Braves. Coverage for the 7 p.m. start begins at 6:40 on the Cape Cod Baseball Network.