The Opening Day ceremonies at Veterans Field were poetic. In one ceremony the team remembered the life of long-time Chatham public address announcer, Dave Weidner, by playing his rendition of “Take Me Out to The Ball Game” and having his grandchildren sing it again during the 7^th inning stretch. In another, they celebrated the “first switch,” turning on their new, 80-foot-tall light poles for the first time in a game. One was a remembrance of an iconic person who is no longer here; the other was the celebration of what will surely become iconic objects being here for the first time. The constant bringing the two together was Cape Cod Baseball.

Following the ceremonies, the Anglers (1-0) wrote some modest poetry of their own as they recorded the first victory of the year over the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox (0-1).

T.J. Zeuch (Pittsburgh) got the first start of the year for the Anglers. After setting Y-D down in order in the first, the Red Sox got to Zeuch in the top of the second inning when Mike Donadio (Saint John’s) singled and later came around to score after a pair of errors.

“When I first got out there I felt a little stiff,” Zeuch said. “It’s been a while since I’ve faced live hitters.”

TJ Zeuch pitching against Yarmouth-Dennis on Tuesday. 

The Anglers offense picked their starter up in the bottom half of the inning when Trenton Brooks (Nevada) shot a double down the third-base line that brought Will Craig (Wake Forest) in from second base, evening the game at 1 run a piece.

When Zeuch took the mound again in the third, it was apparent that he had shaken off all of the stiffness as he did not surrender another run during the outing. He went on to get the win, giving up only 1 unearned run and 7 hits while striking out 2 over 5.2 innings of work. Manager John Schiffner was impressed with the way Zeuch bounced back.

“He settled in really nice, was down low in the zone, and threw very well,” said Schiffner.

Zeuch and the rest of the Angler pitching staff wouldn’t need much more run support moving forward, but that didn’t stop their teammates from contributing offensively.

Nate Mondou (Wake Forest) hit a RBI single in the bottom of the third, and Aaron Knapp (California) added an RBI single of his own in the bottom of the fourth to increase the Angler lead to 3-1.

In the bottom of the fifth Chatham added 2 more runs. Josh Greene (High Point) came home to score on a wild pitch, and Trenton Brooks got his second RBI of the evening with a sacrifice fly to left field that brought home Garrett Hampson (Long Beach State) to stretch the lead to 5-1.

Trenton Brooks finished with the most impressive offensive stat line on the day going 1-2 with 2 RBIs and 1 walk, but his approach and attitude at the plate were perhaps even more admirable.

“He fought off a couple of tough pitches before getting the sacrifice fly,” said Schiffner. “That was a great at-bat. The walk too—another great at-bat.”

During the post-game interviews, Brooks demonstrated a demeanor as team-first and level-headed as he did while battling for a 10-pitch walk and a tough sacrifice fly at the plate.

“I’m just trying to go out there, work counts, get a good pitch,” said Brooks. “I just want to help our team in any way I can.”

In the top of the sixth James Mulry (Northeastern) came on to get the final out of the inning, and Brandon Miller (Millersville) threw the next two innings without surrendering a base runner.

In the eighth inning there was a scary moment when Miller took a chopper off his chin, but as John Schiffner noted, he made the play at first despite the nasty blow.  

“He toughed it out. It was very impressive,” said Schiffner. “That’s a guy who wants to play ball.”

Schiffner added Miller is "okay."

In the ninth Andre Scrubb (High Point) recorded a 1-2-3 inning, and the Anglers took the game 5-1.

The Anglers will play again tomorrow at 6:00 p.m. against the Braves in Bourne.