Sam Travis knocked in the winning runs in Saturday?s 5-1 win in Bourne.
By: Andrew Constant / @andrew_constant
The Red Sox scored three runs in the eighth and two in the ninth to defeat the Bourne Braves 5-1 Friday night at Doran Park. With their fourth consecutive victory, Yarmouth-Dennis remained in sole possession of second place in the Eastern Division with four games to play in the regular season.
Trailing 1-0 heading into the penultimate inning, Y-D received a little bit of help from the Bourne defense. After Sean Dwyer flew out to center field to begin the inning, Sean McHugh singled off Brandon Moore. Robby Campbell pinch-ran for McHugh at first base, giving the Red Sox a little more speed, and he advanced to second base when Braves third baseman Colin Moran booted a routine groundball off the bat of Morgan Mickan.
With two runners on and just one out, Y-D manager Scott Pickler called on Carlos Asuaje to pinch-hit for Justin Shafer at the top of his lineup, and the move paid off, as Asuaje lined a single to center, scoring Campbell from second and tying the game at one apiece.
After a strikeout, Sam Travis singled to left field, bringing Mickan and Asuaje home and giving the Red Sox their first lead of the ballgame. Travis leads the league with 35 RBI and has a solid .361 average, after capturing the Big Ten?s Freshman of the Year award this spring at Indiana.
But the Red Sox weren?t done, as they added a two-spot in the top of the ninth to push their final advantage to four. Zak Blair walked to lead off the inning and scored two batters later when Dwyer tripled to center. Wayne Taylor pushed Dwyer across with an RBI groundout, capping the scoring for Y-D and securing their fourth straight win.
Ben Lively threw five sharp innings, allowing just three hits and one run, while striking out five. Lively still hasn?t won a game this summer, but his last four starts have been stellar, yielding just five earned runs over those 22 innings, with 33 strikeouts over that same period.
Jose Lopez, pitching for the first time this summer for Y-D, picked up the win in relief, tossing two shutout innings. Lopez, a right-hander from Seton Hall, allowed just one hit to the seven batters he faced in the game.
Aaron Blair, the East?s starting pitcher in the All-Star Game, earned the save for Y-D, pitching the final two innings. Blair, the owner of a 6-0 record a 1.17 ERA as a starter this summer, gave up two hits and walked one, but struck out three Braves hitters.
The Red Sox look to add another game to their winning streak Saturday night when they travel to Harwich to take on the first-place Mariners at 7 p.m. Andrew Thurman, a tough-luck loser in his last outing against Cotuit, is scheduled to take the hill for Y-D.
