Beasts of the East:
Behind A Pair Of Outstanding Pitching Performances,
The Harwich Mariners Earned A 2-0 Series Sweep Of Y-D
To Claim Their Second East Division Championship In Four Years

by Eric Adler

SOUTH YARMOUTH – As Steve Englert made his way down Harwich's handshake line, he kept repeating the words over and over again.

"We're going to the 'ship, baby!" We're giong to the championship!" exclaimed the Mariners skipper.

Harwich's Austin Nola is congratulated by his teammates after hitting a solo home run in the ninth inning in the Mariners' 4-2 victory over Y-D on Wednesday. ERIC ADLER PHOTO

In Harwich, that's quickly becoming an old habit.

Behind a sensational effort by starter Taylor Rogers, the Mariners knocked off Y-D 4-2 at Red Wilson Field on Wednesday to sweep the Red Sox 2-0 in the best-of-three series and claim their second East Division Cape League championship in four years.

Harwich's outstanding pitching was the story of this series as they virtually silenced the Sox bats – no small feat considering Y-D had four .300-plus hitters on its team, including Stephen Piscotty, who won the CCBL batting title with a .349 average.

Nick Routt scattered six hits over seven shutout innings to pace the Mariners to a 6-0 win in the East finals opener on Tuesday, and Rogers followed suit less than 24 hours later with an effort that was as gutsy as it was great.

Pitching on just four days' rest, the sweet-throwing southpaw held Y-D to just two hits over eight innings while striking out six. He gave up two hits and two runs in the ninth, but closer Chris Overman slammed the door as Harwich exacted payback after being swept out of the playoffs by Y-D last year.

"As a coaching staff, we kept going over and over who the heck we were going to start in this series, because we've lost so many guys and are so limited," said Englert. "For Routt and Rogers to do what they did and limit Y-D to two runs in two games is just outstanding."

Rogers, who started the All-Star game for the East, has been Harwich's ace all season. Despite his outstanding summer, no one could have imagined he'd last as long as he did on such short rest, but he made quick work of Y-D. He struck out the side in order in the first and retired the side in order in the second, fourth, fifth, seventh and eighth.

"I've been feeling good all summer, and this is the best I've felt in a long time," said Rogers, who was so dominant the Mariners pleaded for him to return for the final frame. "Coach Englert asked me what I wanted to do and everybody in the dugout spoke for me and said 'he's going back out.'"

Y-D put up a fight in the ninth. Derrick Chung slapped a lead-off single to left and Chris Taylor followed with a single to right, prompting Englert to turn the ball over to Overman.

The Red Sox got on the board when first baseman John Wooten let Connor Harrell's grounder get by him, and Y-D cut the deficit in half on James Ramsey's RBI ground out.

That brought the home crowd to its feet, but Overman pulled the plug by getting Piscotty to hit into a force out at second, then got Matt Reynolds to ground out to shortstop to secure the East Division crown.

"It got a little hairy in the ninth," said Englert, "but we had the 'O' man to close them out, so we had them right where we wanted them."

To a larger degree, the Mariners were pretty much in control over the entire two-game set, in which they never trailed. In the series opener, they plated five runs in the first two innings thanks to an RBI single and RBI triple by Darnell Sweeney, and run-scoring single by Jake Davies, Ronnie Richardson and Wooten.

In the clincher, the Mariners seized the lead in the third.

Austin Nola drew a lead-off walk off Y-D starter Andrew Thurman, advanced on a sacrifice bunt by Alex Swim and scored on a fast-dropping double to center by Sweeney that Ramsey contended he caught but actually trapped. Davies (3-for-4) followed with an RBI double.

Davies came up big again in the sixth, leading off with a wall-ball double to dead center. He advanced to third on Wooten's single to left and scored on an RBI ground out by Austin Wilson.

Austin Nola (2-for-3) picked the perfect time to hit his first homer of the season, launching a solo shot in the ninth off reliever Kyle Hansen to provide Harwich with a 4-0 cushion.

Although Y-D made a dent in the ninth, Harwich had a big enough lead to hold, thanks in large part to Rogers. Of his 97 pitches, 67 went for strikes, and he repeatedly put the Sox hitters in a 0-1 or 0-2 hole.

"Something I've learned this summer is when you can get ahead of hitters, it's a big advantage for the pitcher," said Rogers. "It's when you get behind when they usually get hits."

Not to be lost was the outstanding play of Harwich's talented trio in the outfield. Sweeney, Richardson and Wilson (left, center and right, respectively) all prevented hits from finding holes with some truly great grabs. None did it better than Wilson, who came down with Piscotty's shot to the warning track before running into fence in the seventh.

"Every time a ball goes up, I expect it to be caught, only because these guys have done such a great job all summer," said Rogers. "You hold them to that high standard and they continued to make some great plays again today."

The victory was the fourth straight for the Mariners, whose one-game-at-a-time ethos allowed them to stay focused and claim the East Division championship.

"Stay humble and stay hungry. That was the plan today," Wooten said. "Nobody talked about going to the championship. All we wanted to do was beat these guys today. We always seem to struggle against Y-D when we play them here, so it felt good to finally get a win here. And to do it in this situation was huge."

Harwich gets a day off on Thursday, and will take on the winner of the Wareham/Falmouth series for the right to call themselves Cape League champs.

"It feels great to win [the East], but we still have a little bit of business to take care of," said Englert. "I really enjoy having these guys, I really love coaching them and we don't want it to end. We talked a few weeks ago about getting into the playoffs and making a run at this time and we haven't let up. We're going to try to carry this momentum into the next series."

<Caption> Harwich's Austin Nola is congratulated by his teammates after hitting a solo home run in the ninth inning in the Mariners' 4-2 victory over Y-D on Wednesday. ERIC ADLER PHOTO