On a night where Wareham (1-1) met a concoction of constant offense and efficient pitching, Chatham (1-1) fell victim in its first look at a team that won just nine games a summer ago. But this year’s Gatemen came out and swung themselves to a 13-3 win in the Veterans Field opener Thursday night, an offensive effort that was stabilized to an almost equally impressive performance on the mound. 

Chatham manager John Schiffner recognized that Chatham wasn’t particularly strong on the mound or at the plate, but also commended Wareham for its all-around play. 

“That’s a good team. Very solid team,” Schiffner said. 

At the plate

The Angers loaded the bases in the bottom of the first but two strikeouts and a groundout defused the rally before a run came across. Then Chatham fell behind 3-0 while Gatemen starter Nick Fuller set down six straight, but was able to mount a three-run rally in the fourth to draw the score even. Nick Collins (Georgetown), Mitchell Gunsolus (Gonzaga) and Donnie Cimino (Wesleyan) all collected an RBI in the frame, but the offense would essentially stop there. 

“We got close a few times,” Gunsolus said. “But their pitchers did a good job keeping us in check.”

Third baseman Matt Peters (California-Pennsylvania) continued to find a way on base, reaching on an error in the fourth before scoring a run and later singling in the sixth. In all, Chatham regularly worked behind in counts and finished with six hits and 10 strikeouts. 

“We have to do better with our two-strike approach,” Schiffner said. “Can’t strikeout that much.”

Alex Katz (St. John's) made his first appearance for the Anglers against Wareham. View full gallery (click). 

On the mound

The Anglers rolled out Jeff Burke (Boston College) for the second game of the season, and he said after the game that he felt good on the mound. He finished his day with four innings and three earned runs to his name, a home run by Keaton Aldridge the outlier on his line. 

“I just left a change-up over the middle and his bat kind of ran into it,” Burke said. “He did a good job of staying back on it.”

After Burke left the game a combination of Mike Wallace (Fairfield), Alex Katz (St. John’s) and Jeff Gelinas (Maine) would go the rest of the way. Wallace and Katz had a hard time setting down the Gatemen in the fifth and six, as everything from line drives to bleeders managed to find the outfield grass. Wareham posted nine runs in those two frames, before Gelinas finished out the final three innings while yielding one run. 

Up next

Chatham is set to travel to Harwich (2-0) for a 7 p.m. game Friday night. The Mariners have been impressive in their first two games, most recently beating Orleans 10-0 on Thursday. Harwich's switch-hitting outfielder Ian Happ (Cincinnati) has been a tough out at the plate, going 4-for-6 with five runs, two doubles and an RBI in his first two appearances.  

PointStreak, the official scorer of the Cape Cod Baseball League, has Tanner Scott (Texas Tech) as the probable starting pitcher for the Anglers and Michael Boyle (Radford) as probable for the Mariners. 

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