COTUIT – Sticking with the same recipe as they have all season, the Commodores used strong pitching and timely hitting to blank the Cotuit Kettleers 3-0 for their 19th win of the season.
With the win Falmouth (19-12) continues their strong seven point lead in the West Division over the Wareham Gatemen. With the win over Cotuit (11-19-1) Falmouth is now winners in nine of their last eleven games.
Brady Pucket (Lipscomb) made the Sunday night start just a day after being selected to the 2016 Cape Cod Baseball League All-Star Game. The tall righty didn’t disappoint, throwing six shutout innings in one of his best starts of the season and earning his league-leading fourth win of the season.
Countering Puckett on the mound, Justin Hooper (UCLA) faced the minimum nine Falmouth hitters through the first three innings. But it was the fourth that proved difficult for Hooper.
All-Star Michael Gigliotti led off the inning with a sharp single and Matijevic followed suit two batters later with a single of his own. Then after Josh Watson struck out for the second out of the inning and a successful double steal, Willie Burger (Penn State) came up clutch with a two-out RBI that brought home Gigliotti and Matijevic.
“I’m seeing the ball a lot better and it’s paying off,” Burger said regarding his single.
Burger is coming off a two-run home run in last night’s win over Hyannis but has recently seen some time off after he rolled his ankle in the loss to Orleans. During the rest, he had time to focus on improving his swing.
“I was lunging out of my stance a little,” Burger said. “I’ve been able to get back to saying in my legs..seeing the ball deep.”
During the time off, he worked with Athletic Trainer Laura Murphy to get healthy and then focused with Assistant Coach Jack Marder on improving his swing.
“He knows our swings pretty well by this point in the summer” Burger said. “He was the one who came to me and said [I’m] coming out of [my] swing and lunging hard.”
All it took was a couple tweaks and Burger was set.
“We got it figured out,” Burger said.
His hit broke a scoreless tie and pushed Falmouth to a lead they would never relinquish. They tacked one more run in the fifth after the Cotuit pitching walked four batters in the frame.
Puckett ended the night in the sixth and southwest trio of Stephen Villines (Kansas), Seth Elledge (Dallas Baptist) and Corbin Martin (Texas A&M) worked three scoreless inning to close out the win.
Falmouth returns home to Guv Fuller Field tomorrow night for their second back-to-back meeting with Cotuit this season. 6pm first pitch with Commodore Call Pregame starting at 5:45.
You can contact the writer at blakebenard@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter @BlakeBenard.
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