By Lance Reynolds
HARWICH, Mass. ? The Y-D Red Sox had their opportunities ? placing three runners in scoring position in the first two innings ? to jump out to an early lead against the Harwich Mariners at Whitehouse Field Wednesday.
However, the Red Sox failed to find something that plagued the team in consecutive losses coming into Wednesday night: timely hits.
The quest to find those missing hits did not last much longer, as right fielder Alex McKenna and third baseman Nick Quintana started to reveal what Y-D?s offense is truly capable of in the third inning of a 12-1 win over the Mariners.
McKenna, who was slotted in the cleanup spot of the order after leading off in all of his starts prior to Wednesday, made sure that the third inning was not going to be a duplicate of the first two Red Sox at-bats.
With Kyle Isbel reaching on a lead off error and Carlos Cortes drawing a walk, McKenna just wanted to find a way to plate Isbel for the first run of the game. The right fielder did just that.
On the fourth pitch of the at-bat, McKenna laced a single into right bringing in Isbel with the go-ahead run for Y-D.
?I was just looking for something up in the zone and something to do damage with up in the middle,? McKenna said. ?I saw a fastball outer-half and was able to go with it and hit a single into right field.?
A batter later, Quintana, who struck out out to strand runners on second and third in the first inning, unleashed the second pitch of his at-bat for a three-run moonshot over the left field fence to give the Red Sox a comfortable 4-0 lead.
?I knew going into the next pitch that I had to be a little earlier and be on-time,? Quintana said. ?I got a good pitch to hit and put a good swing on it.?
Y-D then went onto score three runs in the fourth inning and five runs in the seventh. Every batter in the Red Sox starting lineup recorded hits to a tune of a season-high 18 hits. Luke Miller led the team with three hits, while Isbel, Nico Hoerner, McKenna, Alfonso Rivas, Cole Kottam and pinch-hitter Christian Koss all had two hits apiece.
The ferocious Y-D offense was more than enough for starting pitcher Tim Brennan, who allowed a run on four hits in seven innings and striking out 10 Mariner batters.
?We lost yesterday to Orleans, and that was tough,? Quintana said. ?So, today for us to just be relaxed and hit the ball and help our pitcher do the best he can ? an all-around effort as a team to score some runs and win a ballgame was huge.?
McKenna led off the top of the seventh with a triple to the right-center fence and was driven in two batters later on a Rivas double to left pushing the Red Sox lead to 8-1 ? a lead that signaled that the Y-D offense turned things around after suffering a 4-3 loss in Orleans Tuesday.
?It?s a big win, every win is a big win,? McKenna said. ?When you can put up [12] runs and play pretty much errorless ball on defense, it gives pitchers a lot of confidence to go out there and throw strikes.?
Y-D (8-4-1) finishes their road trip Thursday with a doubleheader at Doran Park in Bourne. First pitch of game one is 4:00 p.m. with game two slated to begin at 7:00 p.m.
