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Daniel Jackson stars at the plate despite Chatham's 8-5 loss to Yarmouth-Dennis
CHATHAM, Mass. — Dan Jackson, the father of Anglers’ catcher Daniel Jackson (Georgia), asserts that his son hits better when he’s behind the dish.
Heading into Friday, Jackson had only caught five of the A’s first 31 games. In the rest of his appearances, he alternated between manning first base, patrolling the outfield or sitting in the dugout waiting for his turn in the lineup as the designated hitter. On a team that held three other catchers for most of the summer — Chase Fralick (Auburn), Cade Arrambide (LSU) and Noah Miller (Michigan) — Jackson was bound to get shoehorned into other spots around the diamond.
If there’s been a difference, it’s remarkably difficult to notice it. Despite sparingly catching this summer, Jackson entered Friday leading the A’s with an .898 OPS, standing alone as the sole active Angler with an OPS above .800.
Dan first revealed his theory prior to Chatham’s July 22 contest against Wareham, a 5-1 loss to the Gatemen where the A’s fell flat offensively. They notched just two hits and committed five errors, while Jackson — perched behind home — struck out three times in his four at-bats on the day. The theory certainly wasn’t true then.
But after Jackson’s performance Friday, Dan might be onto something.
Again catching for the Anglers at Veterans Field, Jackson gave the A’s an early one-run lead with a first-inning solo shot against Yarmouth-Dennis. While Chatham (13-16-3, East) ultimately relinquished that lead in its 8-5 loss to Y-D (17-12-3, East), Jackson’s blast — his fourth of the season — placed him in sole possession of first atop the Anglers’ home run leaderboards. Thanks to his three-hit performance, his OPS rose to .955 after the contest, ranking third among qualified hitters in the Cape Cod baseball League.
“(Jackson) just hits, he caught three barrels,” Anglers’ manager Dennis Cook said. “He’s gonna get up there, and he’s gonna get his swings in.”
Facing Yarmouth-Dennis, Duke Stone (Mississippi State) began his third start of the summer just as commandingly as his previous two starts. He struck out the first two Red Sox he faced, and the only blemish on his scoreless opening frame came courtesy of a bloop single from Y-D third baseman Chris Hacopian.
Hoping to hand his starter some early insurance in the bottom of the first, Jackson fouled off the first two pitches he faced against Red Sox starter Derek Schaefer (Arizona State). The third one got sent into the right-field grass, leaving no doubt in the mind of Y-D right fielder Jayce Tharnish as he watched it sail over the fence.
“I mean, he just threw like, really just not a good 0-2 slider,” Jackson said. “He kinda gave me a layup, to be honest.”
Catcher Daniel Jackson went 3-for-5 with a solo home run in Chatham's loss to Y-D, continuing his stellar second summer with the Anglers. Photograph by Ella Tovey
The lead didn’t seem to help Stone in the top of the second, though. For the first time since his move to the rotation, he showed cracks in his armor, loading the bases by walking three consecutive batters.
When Stone got Garrett Wright to fly out to Trace Mazon (Coastal Carolina) for his second out of the inning, it seemed he would escape the inning unscathed, preserving the one-run lead Jackson handed Chatham with his blast into right.
Brayden Dowd immediately shut down that idea. After leading off the game by striking out, Dowd got his revenge, lining a single into right on the second pitch of the at bat.
His knock immediately made it 2-1 Red Sox, erasing all the momentum the Anglers had generated in the previous inning.
Once the third rolled around, Stone settled in. After giving up a single to Hacopian, he induced a flyout from Armando Briseño and struck out A.J. Nessler, putting himself in a mightily favorable position.
Again making his impact felt on the game, Jackson gunned out Hacopian trying to steal second for the third out of the frame, ensuring Stone would end the third without allowing a run.
Yet, each inning felt like déjà vu for A’s offense. Jackson was again the lone bright spot from Chatham in the bottom of third, doubling into center with two outs in the frame. It was the second of his three hits on the day, while the rest of the Anglers’ bats struggled to even conjure up a modicum of offense.
“Honestly, I kind of completely ditched my whole swing and started doing a leg kick again,” Jackson said. “I kind of just wanted to go out and just mess around and have more fun.”
And for Stone, the fourth frame almost felt like a rerun of the second. Except this time, the issue for him wasn’t a lack of pitches in the strike zone. If anything, it was that his pitches were too much in the strike zone.
Stone kept feeding fastballs over the heart of the plate to Y-D bats. They punished him every single time. When he was taken out for reliever Josh Swink (Liberty) with one out in the fourth inning, Stone had surrendered seven earned runs as the Anglers trailed 7-1. Cook had little to offer by way of an attempt to diagnose the issues which plagued his starter.
“(He) didn’t throw as many strikes,” Cook said.
The Anglers briefly erupted for three runs in the fifth, and they tacked on a fifth run on a Jackson Freeman (Northwestern) single in the following frame. But even those flurries weren't enough to help the Anglers’ cause.
Throughout most of the season, Jackson has been the A’s biggest star by a country mile. He leads Chatham in almost every offensive statistic imaginable: batting average, home runs, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, OPS and a litany of other figures.
Having an elite hitter can get you a long way. But this isn’t basketball, where a single superstar can singlehandedly will a team to victory. There’s eight other names in the lineup.
And with eight games and three points standing between the Anglers and a CCBL playoff spot, Chatham is going to have to miraculously find another bright spot in a lineup that has essentially been a cavernous abyss for the past three games.
Heading into Friday, Jackson had only caught five of the A’s first 31 games. In the rest of his appearances, he alternated between manning first base, patrolling the outfield or sitting in the dugout waiting for his turn in the lineup as the designated hitter. On a team that held three other catchers for most of the summer — Chase Fralick (Auburn), Cade Arrambide (LSU) and Noah Miller (Michigan) — Jackson was bound to get shoehorned into other spots around the diamond.
If there’s been a difference, it’s remarkably difficult to notice it. Despite sparingly catching this summer, Jackson entered Friday leading the A’s with an .898 OPS, standing alone as the sole active Angler with an OPS above .800.
Dan first revealed his theory prior to Chatham’s July 22 contest against Wareham, a 5-1 loss to the Gatemen where the A’s fell flat offensively. They notched just two hits and committed five errors, while Jackson — perched behind home — struck out three times in his four at-bats on the day. The theory certainly wasn’t true then.
But after Jackson’s performance Friday, Dan might be onto something.
Again catching for the Anglers at Veterans Field, Jackson gave the A’s an early one-run lead with a first-inning solo shot against Yarmouth-Dennis. While Chatham (13-16-3, East) ultimately relinquished that lead in its 8-5 loss to Y-D (17-12-3, East), Jackson’s blast — his fourth of the season — placed him in sole possession of first atop the Anglers’ home run leaderboards. Thanks to his three-hit performance, his OPS rose to .955 after the contest, ranking third among qualified hitters in the Cape Cod baseball League.
“(Jackson) just hits, he caught three barrels,” Anglers’ manager Dennis Cook said. “He’s gonna get up there, and he’s gonna get his swings in.”
Facing Yarmouth-Dennis, Duke Stone (Mississippi State) began his third start of the summer just as commandingly as his previous two starts. He struck out the first two Red Sox he faced, and the only blemish on his scoreless opening frame came courtesy of a bloop single from Y-D third baseman Chris Hacopian.
Hoping to hand his starter some early insurance in the bottom of the first, Jackson fouled off the first two pitches he faced against Red Sox starter Derek Schaefer (Arizona State). The third one got sent into the right-field grass, leaving no doubt in the mind of Y-D right fielder Jayce Tharnish as he watched it sail over the fence.
“I mean, he just threw like, really just not a good 0-2 slider,” Jackson said. “He kinda gave me a layup, to be honest.”
Catcher Daniel Jackson went 3-for-5 with a solo home run in Chatham's loss to Y-D, continuing his stellar second summer with the Anglers. Photograph by Ella Tovey
The lead didn’t seem to help Stone in the top of the second, though. For the first time since his move to the rotation, he showed cracks in his armor, loading the bases by walking three consecutive batters.
When Stone got Garrett Wright to fly out to Trace Mazon (Coastal Carolina) for his second out of the inning, it seemed he would escape the inning unscathed, preserving the one-run lead Jackson handed Chatham with his blast into right.
Brayden Dowd immediately shut down that idea. After leading off the game by striking out, Dowd got his revenge, lining a single into right on the second pitch of the at bat.
His knock immediately made it 2-1 Red Sox, erasing all the momentum the Anglers had generated in the previous inning.
Once the third rolled around, Stone settled in. After giving up a single to Hacopian, he induced a flyout from Armando Briseño and struck out A.J. Nessler, putting himself in a mightily favorable position.
Again making his impact felt on the game, Jackson gunned out Hacopian trying to steal second for the third out of the frame, ensuring Stone would end the third without allowing a run.
Yet, each inning felt like déjà vu for A’s offense. Jackson was again the lone bright spot from Chatham in the bottom of third, doubling into center with two outs in the frame. It was the second of his three hits on the day, while the rest of the Anglers’ bats struggled to even conjure up a modicum of offense.
“Honestly, I kind of completely ditched my whole swing and started doing a leg kick again,” Jackson said. “I kind of just wanted to go out and just mess around and have more fun.”
And for Stone, the fourth frame almost felt like a rerun of the second. Except this time, the issue for him wasn’t a lack of pitches in the strike zone. If anything, it was that his pitches were too much in the strike zone.
Stone kept feeding fastballs over the heart of the plate to Y-D bats. They punished him every single time. When he was taken out for reliever Josh Swink (Liberty) with one out in the fourth inning, Stone had surrendered seven earned runs as the Anglers trailed 7-1. Cook had little to offer by way of an attempt to diagnose the issues which plagued his starter.
“(He) didn’t throw as many strikes,” Cook said.
The Anglers briefly erupted for three runs in the fifth, and they tacked on a fifth run on a Jackson Freeman (Northwestern) single in the following frame. But even those flurries weren't enough to help the Anglers’ cause.
Throughout most of the season, Jackson has been the A’s biggest star by a country mile. He leads Chatham in almost every offensive statistic imaginable: batting average, home runs, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, OPS and a litany of other figures.
Having an elite hitter can get you a long way. But this isn’t basketball, where a single superstar can singlehandedly will a team to victory. There’s eight other names in the lineup.
And with eight games and three points standing between the Anglers and a CCBL playoff spot, Chatham is going to have to miraculously find another bright spot in a lineup that has essentially been a cavernous abyss for the past three games.
