Fall Baseball Update

by Eric Jones - It's hard to pass up a 75 degree day in October with Hawkins Field right across the street from the McGugin Center.

With the Black and Gold Series starting in just a week, I thought I might check out the Commodore baseball scrimmage on Thursday. It turned out to be the closest I got to a Cape Cod summer. There are a good many new faces to learn and as many nicknames to ponder. Today was all about names that you may have heard as veteran pitching highlighted the six-inning intrasquad that ended 4-2. Sophomore Jack Armstrong continued to build off of a very strong summer pitching for Wareham in the Cape Cod League (4-1, 2.57 ERA, 31K in 35 IP). Jack combined with Taylor Hill (2-1, 1.44 ERA, 35K in 31.1IP for Chatham in the Cape) for an impressive performance. In a three-inning start, Armstrong brought the heat striking out 4 including the side to get out of a bases-loaded jam in the second inning. Armstrong was followed by Hill who retired all nine batters he faced with four punchouts to preserve the win.

Richie Goodenow started on the other side of the scorecard working three solid innings, but was victimized by some defensive miscues which allowed two unearned runs. Russell Brewer followed Richie to the mound and threw three scoreless innings with two strikeouts. Brewer was another top summer performer in the Cape where he teamed with Taylor Hill at Chatham. As closer, Russell was 2-1, with a 1.90 ERA and 33K's in 23.1 innings while finishing second in the entire Cape Cod League with 10 saves. The bottom line on this particular day - the summer seems to have been good for Commodore pitching. You can check out all the Commodore who played in the CCL and their summer stats (http://www.capecodbaseball.org/) for yourself.

Another New England Nugget: Freshman Regan Flaherty started at first base and went 2-for-2 with an RBI single and a double. His lefthanded swing is similar to his brother Ryan's and the speed (or lack thereof) was also evident as he got thrown out by homeplate umpire Sonny Gray trying to score from second on a Jordan Wormsley single.

I was just happy that Sonny Gray didn't throw his valuable right arm out of his socket when he called Flaherty out at the plate. Sonny has been watching too many Kimbo Slice snippets on YouTube.

Black and Gold Series: The Black and Gold Series will start on Thursday, October 15. Tim Corbin announced yesterday that the annual fall event will be going to a five-game series: October 15, 16, 18, 19, and 20. All games are scheduled to be broadcast via live audio on vucommodores.com. Stay tuned for times.