By: Greg Levinsky
FALMOUTH – Adjusting to the wood bat is taking a bit longer for the Falmouth Commodores than anticipated. In Tuesday night’s 4-2 loss, the Bourne Braves pitching staff recorded 13 strikeouts as the Falmouth offense sputtered.
The Commodores (2-5) suffered their third-straight defeat and the Braves (4-4) extended their winning streak to four at Guv Fuller Field.
“A lot of guys are still, to be honest with you, getting their feet wet in this league,” said Commodores head coach Jeff Trundy. “There’s a lot of good arms down here every summer, and heck, there’s still guys coming in.
“This league has always been about pitching and always will be, but that doesn’t mean we should be striking out as much as we did tonight.”
Louisiana-Lafayette rising sophomore Hayden Cantrelle has reached base in all seven contests and played center field on Tuesday night after serving as a middle infielder to start the season. He entered the contest leading the Cape Cod League in on-base percentage and stolen bases. Cantrelle is also tied for the league lead in base on balls and added three walks and a steal to his tally on Tuesday.
Appearing in the outfield for the first time this summer, Cantrelle misplayed a fly ball to the outfield in the third inning, resulting in a 1-0 Bourne lead. The Braves tacked on a run in the fifth and two in the seventh on a double by Spencer Brickhouse (East Carolina).
Trundy said minor injuries forced multiple position shifts, one of those being Cantrelle to center field.
“You gotta find out what guys can do, and I wouldn’t be afraid to put him out there again,” Trundy said. “He can run. In fairness to him, I don’t think he’s probably played there the whole year.”
The Commodores fell 5-2 at Bourne on June 14 in the team’s first meeting this summer. The Western Division foes square off six times, twice more in each team’s home park and will next meet on Saturday June 30 at Bourne.
Clemson rising sophomore Spencer Strider made his second start of the summer for Falmouth and pitched 4.2 innings, allowing four hits and two earned runs. He walked three and struck out two.
He fell behind in quite a few counts, but still pitched effectively.
“I thought he did well,” Trundy said. “I’d like to see him get a few more advantage counts, be a little more efficient.”
Bourne starter Zach Peek (Winthrop) cruised through the Falmouth lineup in the first three innings. The Commodores best chance against Peek came when they loaded the bases in the bottom of the fourth with two outs, but James Cosentino (Kansas) grounded out to end the frame. Peek tossed four scoreless and allowed two hits. Mike Ruff (Florida Atlantic) earned the win, tossing two innings and striking out four Commodores.
Cosentino would wheel around from second in the bottom of the seventh on a single by Will Brennan (Kansas State). Clemson rising junior Logan Davidson drove in a run on a sacrifice fly as the Commodores got to Connor Wollersheim (Kent State) who surrendered both runs without recording an out.
Commodore hitters have just 11 hits in the three game skid and have struck out 26 times.
“We just need to get well and relax and we’ll be fine,” Trundy said.
Greg Levinsky can be reached at glevinsk@bu.edu. Follow him on Twitter @GregLevinsky
Up next: Commodores host Yarmouth-Dennis on June 19 at 6:00 p.m. at Guv Fuller Field.
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