Will Turner (South Alabama) makes a catch in center. There were plenty of hard-hit balls that he had to track down in the Whitecaps’ loss. Photo credit Sadie Parker.
by Eamonn Ryan
BREWSTER—For four innings, Rocco Reid and Smith Pinson were locked in a pitchers’ duel with neither looking like they would falter.
Reid, the Clemson pitcher and Whitecaps starter, had faced the minimum through three, getting some help from his defense on an inning-ending line-out double play in the top of the third. Pinson (Kennesaw State) had allowed three hits through three innings, but Brewster could not capitalize.
If the Whitecaps knew what was coming, they might have hoped the game would end in a 0-0 tie after four.
The Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox (19-14-1) used a five-run fifth inning and piled it on in the second half of Friday night’s contest at Stony Brook Field to exact revenge on the Whitecaps (13-20-2) in a 11-1 win.
Just three days before, the Whitecaps hit the cover off the ball and beat Yarmouth-Dennis 15-8, but one run on six hits Friday would not be nearly enough in this one.
“It’s almost like we didn’t stand a chance,” manager Jamie Shevchik said. “We played good baseball for a couple innings and then just imploded in the fifth.”
Tonight’s storm warning came when Reid ran into trouble in the fourth. With two outs, he allowed consecutive singles from Ryan Stafford (Cal Poly) and Zander Darby (UC Santa Barbara) but worked out of a jam to keep it scoreless through four.
In the fifth inning, the Whitecaps were not so fortunate.
The Red Sox picked up their first run off an RBI double by Theo Hardy (San Jose State). That ended Reid’s day on the mound after 4.1 innings of work, but the damage was not done just yet.
A sacrifice fly from RJ Austin (Vanderbilt) scored another, then Hunter Hines (Mississippi State) rocketed a two-run homer over the right-field fence. Darby added on, off an RBI double to score Stafford, and when the dust cleared, the Red Sox’s five-run tornado had blazed its trail straight through Brewster.
Hines’ home run increased his league-leading total to 10 this season, and it was his fourth against the Whitecaps, earning him the designation of “Whitecaps killer” from the broadcast booth.
“We can’t match up with him,” Shevchik said “And that just means he’s that good. He’s really, really good.”
While the bell rang on the Whitecaps’ pitching masterclass, Yarmouth-Dennis’ stayed in session for the entire contest. Righty Smith Pinson (Kennesaw State) shut the order down, allowing no runs through six innings on five hits.
The Whitecaps threatened with a runner at third in both the second and third innings, but those 90 feet appeared to be a canyon rather than a simple base path as they failed to push a run across in either inning.
Brewster had to wait until the seventh inning to get on the board, but before they could do that, the Red Sox scored three more runs off just two hits in the top of the frame. Three walks from Whitecaps reliever Luke Lyman (West Virginia) contributed to the big inning for Yarmouth-Dennis, who took an 8-0 lead.
Jared Jones (LSU) came in as a pinch hitter for Brewster in the bottom half of the seventh and with a hard swing, clobbered the ball over the left-field fence for his first homer of the season. It had been a long time coming for the big righty, who struggled early but has slightly found his footing with three hits in his last three games.
“It means that he’s getting closer and closer to how we want him to be,” Shevchik said.
In the eighth, the Red Sox piled on three more runs off reliever Drake Quinn (South Carolina), and after the Whitecaps failed to muster any sort of jab or hook, the umpires met at home plate. With darkness creeping in, both teams decided to end the game before the ninth could be played.
Brewster takes two days off for the All-Star Break before returning to action Monday at 4:30 at Lowell Park in Cotuit. Before then, check out the Whitecaps’ All-Stars Saturday evening at the Cape League All-Star Game at Whitehouse Field in Harwich. First pitch is at 6 p.m. with the Home Run Hitting Contest scheduled for 4 p.m. Saturday afternoon.