By: Finn Riley
Yarmouth, M.A. 一 On Tuesday, the Whitecaps broke the losing streak with a 1-1 tie against the Y-D Red Sox, marking the sixth tie of the year for Brewster.
In another pitching-centric game, the Whitecaps received top tier performances from college teammates Grant Taylor (LSU) and Paul Gervase (LSU) who combined for 18 strikeouts.
Both Taylor and Gervase were making their final appearances for the Whitecaps, as they both reached their innings limits for the summer.
Taylor delivered arguably the best start of the year for the Whitecaps, as he went six innings and totaled a season-high 12 strikeouts and allowed only one run on four hits.
“Today it was really my fastball and curveball, I threw a couple sliders and mixed in some change ups too, really I was just trying to attack hitters and get ahead early.” Taylor said.
Taylor appeared in five games and made four starts for Brewster, and finished his season with a 2.14 earned run average with 30 strikeouts over 21 innings of work.
“I think it was great that the Caps were able to give me an opportunity to come up here and work through some things, and obviously I had some success while I was doing it so I’m really thankful.”
Gervase continued the pitching dominance by racking up six strikeouts through the final three innings in what was his final outing.
Following the game, Pitching Coach Jason Rathbun had nothing but positive things to say about Grant and Paul.
“It’s been a rough couple weeks, losing Fitzy now losing Grant and Pauly today. Not only were they great for us on the mound, they were great in the bullpen and good character kids. […] I’ll miss their performances on the field because they were great, but I’m gonna miss just talking to them honestly, I’m kinda broken up over it a little bit.”
The losses of Taylor and Gervase will impact the Caps’ overall pitching performance as well as the team chemistry. However, Hunter Owen (Vanderbilt) who was part of last year’s championship team, will be rejoining the staff.
“I think we’ll start him off slow, we’ll get some innings out of the bullpen at first and hopefully we can extend him as the summer goes on.” Coach Rathbun said.
Owen is coming off a solid season for the Commodores, totaling 38 strikeouts through 26⅔ innings with a 2-1 record, he will be a crucial piece for the Whitecaps pitching going forward.
On Wednesday, the Whitecaps will travel to Fuller Field to take on the Falmouth Commodores, with the first pitch at 6:00 pm.