EAST SANDWICH – With both teams needing to win, Barnstable High junior Ryan Bruning came through to help lead the Red Raiders into the postseason with an 8-4 win over the host Sandwich Blue Knights Saturday afternoon.
Sandwich High’s Cam Yadisernian delivers to Barnstable’s Jackson Badot who went 3-4 on the day as the Red Raiders quashed the Blue Knights’ postseason hopes.
Sean Walsh/Capecod.com Sports
Barnstable finished at an even 10-10 with the win and qualified for the postseason in what was the last regular season game for both teams. Sandwich High’s postseason hopes were dashed and the Blue Knights closed out the 2015 campaign at 9-11. The Blue Knights started the season out at 2-6 and Barnstable was in similar, early, dire straits, with a 1-4 record to start but it also turned things around.
“We made too many mistakes in the field,” Sandwich first-year head coach Brian Tomasini said of Saturday’s season-ending loss. “It was a tough one.”
Bruning, a right-hander, went the distance and had a no-hitter going until the bottom of the fifth when Mike Manning broke it up with a one-out double and then scored on an infield error but at that stage the 6-1 lead by the guests seemed almost insurmountable. Bruning struck out seven, hit two batters and scattered four hits in what could only be deemed a model of efficiency. His record is now 4-2 on the season.
Bruning’s Red Raider teammates staked the first-year varsity pitcher to a 3-0 lead in the first inning and made Blue Knight southpaw Will Crowther’s start a short one as the junior lasted just one frame. A pair of leadoff walks to Jackson Badot (2-3, 2 runs) and Andrew Atsalis (2-3, RBI) – who both stole – led to a sacrifice fly from Griffin Burke to make it 1-0 and an RBI-single from Jack Kennedy (3-4, 3 RBI) to make it 2-0. Kennedy came home on an eventual infield error to make it 3-0.
Cam Yadisernian pitched the second through fifth frames for Sandwich and held the Barnstable bats at bay until the fifth when the Red Raiders opened things up with another three-run rally that again began with a pair of free passes. Badot, Atsalis, Kennedy and JR DiSarcina (1-4, RBI) each followed with hits to make it a 6-0 ballgame.
In the bottom of the fifth, Manning scored the Blue Knights’ first run (as noted above), and then followed with one more in the sixth and two in the seventh but it was not enough as Bruning did not allow the late-game rally to get under his skin and he stranded two men on base to close it out.
Barnstable High’s Andrew Atsalis drives in a run in the fifth inning. Noah Holland was behind the plate for Sandwich.
Sean Walsh/Capecod.com Sports
Jake Golden, Sandwich High’s senior captain, pitched the sixth and seventh frames in relief and allowed two runs in the sixth that proved valuable insurance for the visitors in Red & White. Alex Mercado (1-4) and CJ McCabe (1-2, RBI) both hit doubles to get that rally going.
The MIAA Division 1 South Sectional baseball seedings and pairings will be announced on Monday (June 1) and the tournament is slated to begin on Wednesday (June 3).
— Sean Walsh is the sports editor for www.capecod.com. His email is [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @coachwalshccbm
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