BY PJ MCDONALD
HARWICH– The Red Sox traveled to the Harwich Mariners for an important divisional game under the lights on Tuesday. The Y-D offense exploded for ten runs to get a 10-3 victory as the pitching staff for Y-D put together an impressive outing all around.
Bryce Collins got the start for the Red Sox pitching one scoreless inning allowing one hit and striking out one Harwich batter. Zach Jacobs came into pitch for Y-D in the second inning and gave up a solo home run to Jordan Beck to put the Mariners up 1-0.
The lead didn’t last long for Harwich as the Y-D offense exploded in the top of the fourth inning for five runs. Brooks Lee started off the inning with a double that one-hopped the fence in left-center field. Dominic Keegan brought him home with a “Dom Bomb” over the left-field fence, his fifth home run of the season making it 2-1 Redsox. Kody Huff followed up with a double of his own. With one out and a runner on second, Drew Bowser ripped a single to left field that scored Huff from second base. Y-D wasn’t done yet, Zach Lew reached on a walk and Briley Knight singled to load the bases for Tanner Smith. With two outs and the bases juiced Smith roped a double down the right-field line scoring Bowser and Lew to make it 5-1 Red Sox.
Jacobs settled down after the second inning and pitched five scoreless innings allowing four hits and striking out five Harwich batters. It was an impressive outing for Jacobs having to pitch in long relief as he shut down the Mariners bats.
In the top of the eighth inning, Y-D padded their lead with a bases-loaded two-RBI double to left field by Wyatt Hoffman scoring Patrick Caufield and Zach Lew. With runners on first and second Tanner Smith did his job with a groundout to second base scoring Knight from third base and advancing Hoffman to third. Brooks Lee recorded his fifth hit of the game with a one-out-two-run blast over the center-field fence to make it 10-1 Y-D.
Joe Moran took the mound for Y-D in the bottom of the eighth and cruised through the eighth inning. Moran ran into some trouble in the bottom of the ninth giving up two runs, but bounced back and closed out the game for the Red Sox, sealing the win.
The Red Sox offense totaled fourteen hits in the 10-3 victory including four players recording multiple hits Brooks Lee (5-5), Tanner Smith (2-5), Wyatt Hoffman (2-5), and Drew Bowser (2-3).
Brooks Lee had himself a night at the plate with a home run, two doubles, and two base knocks. The home run was Lee’s fifth of the season and he is tied with Dominic Keegan for the most on the team. Lee’s average is now .407 on the season and it will be interesting to see if he can finish the last seven games of the regular season strong and hit over .400.
Y-D currently sits five points back of the Mariners for that second-place spot in the East Division with seven games to play. Every game matters for Y-D going forward and hopefully the bats can stay hot as they travel to Bourne on Wednesday to face off against the Braves (21-6-3) at 6:00 PM.
