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Anglers unload season-best 12 runs to defeat Mariners, snap 2-game skid
HARWICH, Mass. — For the A’s, the first inning of their contest against Harwich Friday went just like their previous 19 innings: they were blanked.
Minutes before first pitch, the Mariners made a quick switch to their rotation, pulling Matthew Heiberger from his scheduled start in favor of Luke McNeillie. With Heiberger holding a nearly-flawless 0.79 earned run average entering Friday, it’d be easy to imagine the Anglers were more than willing to take their chances against McNeillie, who carried a mediocre 4.41 ERA into his fourth start of the season.
Yet, since the departure of Henry Ford (Tennessee) and Ethan Mendoza (Texas), it hadn’t mattered who was on the mound against Chatham. When Ashton Larson (LSU/transfer), Daniel Jackson (Georgia) and Jackson Freeman (Northwestern) all got shut down in the first frame, it seemed like a bad omen for the A’s offense.
But all season, Anglers manager Dennis Cook has praised the virtue of patience. When diagnosing the remedy to Chatham’s early offensive issues, his answer was always simple — the A’s just needed time. Once the Anglers got to the second frame, his words finally rang true.
Still facing McNeillie, the A’s finally broke through in the second inning, plating three runs to snap their 20-inning scoreless streak. Buoyed by its offensive awakening, Chatham (9-10-3, East) defeated Harwich (10-8-3, East) 12-7 at Whitehouse Field Friday, snapping its two-game losing streak in the process. The Anglers tagged McNeillie for four runs — three earned — chasing Harwich’s starter from the game before he could even finish the third inning.
“They felt a little more locked in tonight,” Cook said. “I think one-through-nine, we took some good swings. When you do that, good things happen.”
For the Anglers, starter Nate Taylor (Georgia/transfer) remained composed early on, working around a leadoff single and steal from Tre Broussard in order to make sure Chatham wouldn’t be punished for its first-inning ineptitude.
The A’s immediately capitalized on his efforts, leading off the second with consecutive walks to Isaiah Lane (San Diego), Chase Fralick (Auburn) and Gavin Gallaher (North Carolina) to load the bases for Roman Martin (UCLA).
Martin entered Friday with zero hits in his two Cape Cod Baseball League appearances, mustering up a disappointing .250 OPS across his six at-bats thus far. But he was so close to breaking through. Having hit for a stellar .316 batting average as a sophomore with the Bruins, it was evident that he was going to get on the board eventually.
He just happened to do it in the most important spot of his Chatham career.
“That first hit really put a smile on my face,” Martin said. “Just to get that first one out of the way was huge.”
The A’s third baseman lined a single into right off McNeillie, driving in Lane to give Chatham its first run since the sixth inning of its 11-8 win over Falmouth. That was Sunday. It’s now Friday.
Roman Martin rounds first after belting a single amid Chatham's victory over Harwich. Martin went 4-for-5 in a breakout performance to get his Cape League career off to a hot start. Photograph by Ella Tovey
As if the Anglers were determined to prove the run wasn’t just a glitch in the system, they continued to attack McNeillie, despite failing to notch a second hit in the inning. Jake Hanley (Indiana) barrelled up a ball to center immediately after, and while it was ultimately just a sacrifice fly to plate Fralick, it was arguably the best contact Hanley has had all summer.
“Sometimes, you just need to get away from it for a couple days,” Cook said of his prior decision to sit Hanley. “I’ve done that with him a couple times this year, and he’s responded well.”
Cade Arrambide’s (LSU) subsequent flyball to right wasn’t nearly as loud as Hanley’s profound pop-up, but it was still deep enough to plate Gallaher with little issue, giving Chatham a three-run lead before the third inning had commenced.
By then, Harwich manager Steve Englert realized his last-minute gambit wasn’t going to work. After Jackson reached on an error by shortstop Tanner Marsh, Freeman’s bat roared back to life with a loud double into center, allowing Jackson to cross home plate without a slide.
Soon after, Tazwell Butler replaced McNeillie, shutting down the A’s in the third. But in the following frame, he gave up the second of Martin’s four hits on the day. The Anglers third baseman then scored Chatham’s fifth run of the game on a deep sacrifice fly to Arrambide — his second RBI of the game.
Prior to that fateful fourth frame, Taylor worked through three scoreless innings against the Mariners. However, the flamethrowing righty found himself in trouble in the final inning of his Chatham career.
After singles from Aiden Robbins and Maddox Molony, Niko Brini followed by slapping a fielder’s choice to score Robbins, putting the Mariners on the board for the first time all game. Two consecutive wayward offerings from Taylor allowed Molony to score Harwich’s second run, placing Brini on third with just one out.
With the fleet-of-foot Brini standing just 90 feet away, all Matt Conte had to do was put the ball in play. He did just that, grounding out to cut the Mariners’ deficit to 5-3 in a single frame.
The Anglers were suddenly in need of some serious insurance. The A’s of two days ago might not have been able to put a rally together to fortify their lead.
But this isn’t the Chatham of two days ago. Jackson led off the fifth with a walk and immediately stole second. After an effective hit-and-run by Freeman, Lane had the perfect opportunity to drive in Jackson with a bloop single into right.
Soon after, Butler was replaced by Heiberger, finally giving Chatham a chance to face the Mariners’ original starter. Though even he couldn’t stop the bleeding at this point, allowing two fifth-inning doubles to Martin and Hanley — who finished with five RBIs — to stretch Chatham’s lead to 9-3.
“(Heiberger) was living on the outer half,” Martin said. “I got myself into a good count and drove a pitch the other way, exactly what I was looking for.”
Since the departures of Ford and Mendoza, Cook has endlessly shaken up the lineup configuration trying to find the perfect formula for offensive production. He has the right elements. Yet, in Chatham’s shutout losses to Yarmouth-Dennis and Brewster, it’s clear they were in the wrong order.
But if Friday’s performance — a season-high 12 runs against a Harwich team that had never conceded more than eight — is any indication, it seems like Chatham’s mad scientist has finally found the formula for success.
“Yeah,” Cook said, pondering if he had found the right lineup. “When I sit down tomorrow night and write it, it’ll probably be pretty similar, if not the same.”
Minutes before first pitch, the Mariners made a quick switch to their rotation, pulling Matthew Heiberger from his scheduled start in favor of Luke McNeillie. With Heiberger holding a nearly-flawless 0.79 earned run average entering Friday, it’d be easy to imagine the Anglers were more than willing to take their chances against McNeillie, who carried a mediocre 4.41 ERA into his fourth start of the season.
Yet, since the departure of Henry Ford (Tennessee) and Ethan Mendoza (Texas), it hadn’t mattered who was on the mound against Chatham. When Ashton Larson (LSU/transfer), Daniel Jackson (Georgia) and Jackson Freeman (Northwestern) all got shut down in the first frame, it seemed like a bad omen for the A’s offense.
But all season, Anglers manager Dennis Cook has praised the virtue of patience. When diagnosing the remedy to Chatham’s early offensive issues, his answer was always simple — the A’s just needed time. Once the Anglers got to the second frame, his words finally rang true.
Still facing McNeillie, the A’s finally broke through in the second inning, plating three runs to snap their 20-inning scoreless streak. Buoyed by its offensive awakening, Chatham (9-10-3, East) defeated Harwich (10-8-3, East) 12-7 at Whitehouse Field Friday, snapping its two-game losing streak in the process. The Anglers tagged McNeillie for four runs — three earned — chasing Harwich’s starter from the game before he could even finish the third inning.
“They felt a little more locked in tonight,” Cook said. “I think one-through-nine, we took some good swings. When you do that, good things happen.”
For the Anglers, starter Nate Taylor (Georgia/transfer) remained composed early on, working around a leadoff single and steal from Tre Broussard in order to make sure Chatham wouldn’t be punished for its first-inning ineptitude.
The A’s immediately capitalized on his efforts, leading off the second with consecutive walks to Isaiah Lane (San Diego), Chase Fralick (Auburn) and Gavin Gallaher (North Carolina) to load the bases for Roman Martin (UCLA).
Martin entered Friday with zero hits in his two Cape Cod Baseball League appearances, mustering up a disappointing .250 OPS across his six at-bats thus far. But he was so close to breaking through. Having hit for a stellar .316 batting average as a sophomore with the Bruins, it was evident that he was going to get on the board eventually.
He just happened to do it in the most important spot of his Chatham career.
“That first hit really put a smile on my face,” Martin said. “Just to get that first one out of the way was huge.”
The A’s third baseman lined a single into right off McNeillie, driving in Lane to give Chatham its first run since the sixth inning of its 11-8 win over Falmouth. That was Sunday. It’s now Friday.
Roman Martin rounds first after belting a single amid Chatham's victory over Harwich. Martin went 4-for-5 in a breakout performance to get his Cape League career off to a hot start. Photograph by Ella Tovey
As if the Anglers were determined to prove the run wasn’t just a glitch in the system, they continued to attack McNeillie, despite failing to notch a second hit in the inning. Jake Hanley (Indiana) barrelled up a ball to center immediately after, and while it was ultimately just a sacrifice fly to plate Fralick, it was arguably the best contact Hanley has had all summer.
“Sometimes, you just need to get away from it for a couple days,” Cook said of his prior decision to sit Hanley. “I’ve done that with him a couple times this year, and he’s responded well.”
Cade Arrambide’s (LSU) subsequent flyball to right wasn’t nearly as loud as Hanley’s profound pop-up, but it was still deep enough to plate Gallaher with little issue, giving Chatham a three-run lead before the third inning had commenced.
By then, Harwich manager Steve Englert realized his last-minute gambit wasn’t going to work. After Jackson reached on an error by shortstop Tanner Marsh, Freeman’s bat roared back to life with a loud double into center, allowing Jackson to cross home plate without a slide.
Soon after, Tazwell Butler replaced McNeillie, shutting down the A’s in the third. But in the following frame, he gave up the second of Martin’s four hits on the day. The Anglers third baseman then scored Chatham’s fifth run of the game on a deep sacrifice fly to Arrambide — his second RBI of the game.
Prior to that fateful fourth frame, Taylor worked through three scoreless innings against the Mariners. However, the flamethrowing righty found himself in trouble in the final inning of his Chatham career.
After singles from Aiden Robbins and Maddox Molony, Niko Brini followed by slapping a fielder’s choice to score Robbins, putting the Mariners on the board for the first time all game. Two consecutive wayward offerings from Taylor allowed Molony to score Harwich’s second run, placing Brini on third with just one out.
With the fleet-of-foot Brini standing just 90 feet away, all Matt Conte had to do was put the ball in play. He did just that, grounding out to cut the Mariners’ deficit to 5-3 in a single frame.
The Anglers were suddenly in need of some serious insurance. The A’s of two days ago might not have been able to put a rally together to fortify their lead.
But this isn’t the Chatham of two days ago. Jackson led off the fifth with a walk and immediately stole second. After an effective hit-and-run by Freeman, Lane had the perfect opportunity to drive in Jackson with a bloop single into right.
Soon after, Butler was replaced by Heiberger, finally giving Chatham a chance to face the Mariners’ original starter. Though even he couldn’t stop the bleeding at this point, allowing two fifth-inning doubles to Martin and Hanley — who finished with five RBIs — to stretch Chatham’s lead to 9-3.
“(Heiberger) was living on the outer half,” Martin said. “I got myself into a good count and drove a pitch the other way, exactly what I was looking for.”
Since the departures of Ford and Mendoza, Cook has endlessly shaken up the lineup configuration trying to find the perfect formula for offensive production. He has the right elements. Yet, in Chatham’s shutout losses to Yarmouth-Dennis and Brewster, it’s clear they were in the wrong order.
But if Friday’s performance — a season-high 12 runs against a Harwich team that had never conceded more than eight — is any indication, it seems like Chatham’s mad scientist has finally found the formula for success.
“Yeah,” Cook said, pondering if he had found the right lineup. “When I sit down tomorrow night and write it, it’ll probably be pretty similar, if not the same.”
