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Chatham’s season ends with 8-2 loss to Y-D in East Division Series Game 3
SOUTH YARMOUTH, Mass. — On Tuesday evening, Chatham left Red Wilson Field as hot as it had been all season. The A’s had just trounced the No. 1 seed Red Sox 9-5 behind a 14-hit, three-homer showing from their bats. It punctuated a stretch of nine wins in 10 games for the Anglers.
How quickly things can change.
Back at Veterans Field Wednesday night, Chatham mustered just two hits in a 1-0 loss to Yarmouth-Dennis, sending the series back to Red Wilson Field for a win-or-go-home Game 3.
The Anglers bats had previously been scorching hot. But on Wednesday’s Anglers Extra Pregame show, A’s manager Dennis Cook said it might only take one good day from an opponent’s pitcher to slow the Anglers’ roll.
And that’s precisely what happened. A day after mustering two hits, Chatham (1-2, East) knocked just five in a 8-2 loss to Yarmouth-Dennis (2-1, East) in Game 3 of the East Division Series. All of the Red Sox’s eight runs came off of home runs, as three different Y-D batters hit one out of Red Wilson Field. As a result, Chatham’s season ended short of the East Division Championship Series for the eighth straight year.
"Hitting is contagious, and I think that in the past couple of days, it just didn't feel the same,” Cook said postgame. “That's baseball. That's the way it is."
Chatham’s Jamie Palmese (Kansas) led the game off with a double down the left field line, but the A’s couldn’t push him across. Rhett Vaughn (Florida State), Y-D’s starter, then struck out the side in the top of the second.
The Red Sox rewarded his efforts in the bottom half of the frame. Kevin Takeuchi (USC) led off the second with a double to the left-field wall, then Brock Ketelsen (Stanford) was hit by a pitch. Mateo Serna (Alabama) moved the runners with a fly ball to left.
Ryder Robinson (BYU) then lined out to short, but Reid Howard (Virginia) didn’t let Chatham starter Oliver Pudvar (UConn) escape unscathed. Howard uncorked a three-run homer over the left field wall to put the Red Sox up 3-0. Howard didn’t have a homer this summer — or this spring at Western Kentucky, for that matter — before the EDS.
He hit two against the A’s in three days.
"It is what it is," Cook said postgame. "We hit a bunch of (homers) the other night, and they hit a bunch of them tonight. That's just the way the game is."
It was going to take quite a bit to get to Vaughn, who entered Thursday’s game having allowed just two runs in 22.1 innings. He sat the Anglers down in order again in the third, but ran into some trouble in the fourth.
Watters missed a home run by about two feet to lead off the frame, smacking a deep fly out to the warning track. Two batters later, Marshall pummelled a ball over the wall in left-center to trim the lead to two, but Y-D nabbed that run right back.
Ketelsen led off the bottom of the fourth with a bunt single before Serna blasted a no-doubt two-run shot over the left field wall. The game’s third home run gave the Red Sox a 5-1 lead.
Pudvar struck out Robinson the next at-bat, but that was the end of his night. Chatham turned to Brady Coe (Houston) out of the bullpen with one out in the third. He struck out Howard before Tharnish flew out to the warning track.
Vaughn returned for the fifth inning, and promptly rung up Hovater and Aidan Eshelman (UTSA) before forcing Max Martinez (USC) to ground out.
"He mixed well and threw strikes," Cook said of Vaughn. "That's the formula for success anywhere."
Vaughn was replaced by Owen Birchard (Bryant) in the sixth, and he picked up right where Vaughn left off, striking out Tyler Howe (North Carolina) and Palmese. He walked Watters with two outs, but then forced Guzman to fly out and end the inning.
Y-D put two runners in scoring position with one out in the sixth after Leo Odom (Ole Miss) replaced Coe. Odom got a strikeout to put two outs on the board, then got two strikes on Jake Souders (Mississippi State).
But Odom fired a fastball that got a little bit too much of the plate. Souders mashed it over the center field wall to push Y-D’s advantage to 8-1.
It was far too much for the A’s to overcome. Chatham registered three hits in the final three innings — including a solo homer from Jacob Driver (Meridian CC) in the ninth. But throughout most of the day, the A’s couldn’t get runners in scoring position, and when they did, they couldn’t push them across. The pitching — which had allowed just six runs in the first two games of the series — couldn’t get Chatham over the line in Game 3.
And it led to a season-ending loss.
How quickly things can change.
Back at Veterans Field Wednesday night, Chatham mustered just two hits in a 1-0 loss to Yarmouth-Dennis, sending the series back to Red Wilson Field for a win-or-go-home Game 3.
The Anglers bats had previously been scorching hot. But on Wednesday’s Anglers Extra Pregame show, A’s manager Dennis Cook said it might only take one good day from an opponent’s pitcher to slow the Anglers’ roll.
And that’s precisely what happened. A day after mustering two hits, Chatham (1-2, East) knocked just five in a 8-2 loss to Yarmouth-Dennis (2-1, East) in Game 3 of the East Division Series. All of the Red Sox’s eight runs came off of home runs, as three different Y-D batters hit one out of Red Wilson Field. As a result, Chatham’s season ended short of the East Division Championship Series for the eighth straight year.
"Hitting is contagious, and I think that in the past couple of days, it just didn't feel the same,” Cook said postgame. “That's baseball. That's the way it is."
Chatham’s Jamie Palmese (Kansas) led the game off with a double down the left field line, but the A’s couldn’t push him across. Rhett Vaughn (Florida State), Y-D’s starter, then struck out the side in the top of the second.
The Red Sox rewarded his efforts in the bottom half of the frame. Kevin Takeuchi (USC) led off the second with a double to the left-field wall, then Brock Ketelsen (Stanford) was hit by a pitch. Mateo Serna (Alabama) moved the runners with a fly ball to left.
Ryder Robinson (BYU) then lined out to short, but Reid Howard (Virginia) didn’t let Chatham starter Oliver Pudvar (UConn) escape unscathed. Howard uncorked a three-run homer over the left field wall to put the Red Sox up 3-0. Howard didn’t have a homer this summer — or this spring at Western Kentucky, for that matter — before the EDS.
He hit two against the A’s in three days.
"It is what it is," Cook said postgame. "We hit a bunch of (homers) the other night, and they hit a bunch of them tonight. That's just the way the game is."
It was going to take quite a bit to get to Vaughn, who entered Thursday’s game having allowed just two runs in 22.1 innings. He sat the Anglers down in order again in the third, but ran into some trouble in the fourth.
Watters missed a home run by about two feet to lead off the frame, smacking a deep fly out to the warning track. Two batters later, Marshall pummelled a ball over the wall in left-center to trim the lead to two, but Y-D nabbed that run right back.
Ketelsen led off the bottom of the fourth with a bunt single before Serna blasted a no-doubt two-run shot over the left field wall. The game’s third home run gave the Red Sox a 5-1 lead.
Pudvar struck out Robinson the next at-bat, but that was the end of his night. Chatham turned to Brady Coe (Houston) out of the bullpen with one out in the third. He struck out Howard before Tharnish flew out to the warning track.
Vaughn returned for the fifth inning, and promptly rung up Hovater and Aidan Eshelman (UTSA) before forcing Max Martinez (USC) to ground out.
"He mixed well and threw strikes," Cook said of Vaughn. "That's the formula for success anywhere."
Vaughn was replaced by Owen Birchard (Bryant) in the sixth, and he picked up right where Vaughn left off, striking out Tyler Howe (North Carolina) and Palmese. He walked Watters with two outs, but then forced Guzman to fly out and end the inning.
Y-D put two runners in scoring position with one out in the sixth after Leo Odom (Ole Miss) replaced Coe. Odom got a strikeout to put two outs on the board, then got two strikes on Jake Souders (Mississippi State).
But Odom fired a fastball that got a little bit too much of the plate. Souders mashed it over the center field wall to push Y-D’s advantage to 8-1.
It was far too much for the A’s to overcome. Chatham registered three hits in the final three innings — including a solo homer from Jacob Driver (Meridian CC) in the ninth. But throughout most of the day, the A’s couldn’t get runners in scoring position, and when they did, they couldn’t push them across. The pitching — which had allowed just six runs in the first two games of the series — couldn’t get Chatham over the line in Game 3.
And it led to a season-ending loss.
