30 minutes after the Chatham Anglers (4-2) claimed a 6-4 victory over the Falmouth Commodores (3-4) in the first game of a twin bill, the teams were back on Veterans Field for the second. It too was scheduled as a seven-inning contest by rule, but seven wasn’t enough.

In stark contrast from the plentiful offense of the matinee, runs were a difficult commodity to come by under the lights. Chatham came up just short in the 3-2, nine-inning loss.

The Anglers split a doubleheader against Falmouth on Sunday. 

“I like our kids’ spunk. They don’t like to be down; they don’t like to lose,” said Manager John Schiffner. “They battled in their at-bats, they played excellent defense, and the pitching was good. I just wish we got the two points.”

Chatham’s only run on the scoreboard for most of the game was a Will Craig (Wake Forest) RBI single in the first inning.

The Anglers needed some late-game magic down 2-1 in the bottom of the seventh, and they needed to do it against former Angler sidewinder, Rob DiFranco (Bates).

Garrett Hampson (Long Beach State) led off with a single to left. After the following batter was retired, Kyle Adams (Richmond), who had a two-run double in the early game, came through again with a pinch-hit single to move Hampson to third. That setup a Trenton Brooks (Nevada) RBI single to tie the game.

“I was just going up trying to get a good pitch to hit, and he threw one pretty close to the center of the plate,” said Brooks, who leads the league with a .500 average through six games. “It was a fastball, and I just tried to not do too much with it.

Ty Damron (Texas Tech) got his first start for the Anglers. He gave up two runs on eight hits over five innings. JJ. Matijevic (Arizona) drove in one run for the Commodores in the first, and Mitch Longo (Ohio) added the second on a soft single in the fourth. Jim McDade (Millersville) came on for a 1-2-3 sixth inning.

“Damron had a solid outing,” said Schiffner. “He needs to get away from the middle of the plate a little bit, but he hasn’t thrown in a while. Overall it was impressive.”

Jeff Paschke (USC) took the loss despite a solid performance. He surrendered one run on two hits and three walks in three innings of relief.

“Paschke did a nice job,” said Schiffner. “He needs to locate a little bit better, but he’s another guy who hasn’t thrown in a while."

In the bottom of the ninth inning the Anglers again threatened but could not get the break they needed. With two outs and a man on third, Aaron Barnett (Pepperdine) drove a ball deep to right field, but it fell harmlessly into Heath Quinn’s (Samford) glove on the warning track.

The Anglers’ next game is in Harwich at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday.