Wareham 6  Falmouth 1

The Falmouth Commodores could not seem to get things going as they dropped a tough 6-1 game to the visiting Wareham Gatemen. The field was filled with almost 2,000 cheering fans at the first annual game at Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School.Rex Brothers earned the starting nod for the Commodores, going four innings, giving up four runs on five hits, one walk, and five K’s.  Shaeffer Hall, Travis Lawler, and Nick Tepesch pitched in relief, going a combined five innings, giving up two runs, eight hits, walking two and striking out five.Falmouth got on board in the first off of a pair of Gatemen errors and a Trevor Coleman RBI.  That would be all the Commodores would score, as the Gatemen scored four in the 2nd, and one each in the 8th and 9th.  The Commodores had bases loaded chances in the 2nd and 3rd, but could not convert.  Kevin Nolan and Darin Ruf went 2 for 4 for the Commodores.Falmouth is back in action Wednesday night in a make up game against Harwich at Arnie Allen Diamond at 7pm.

Gatemen News Archives

07/22/08 - Leonida Leads Gatemen to Victory on Martha's Vineyard

Cole Leonida (Georgia Tech) hit a 2 run homer and added and rbi single to lead the Wareham Gatemen to a 6-1 victory over the Falmouth Commodores in front of 2,232 in a game played on the island of Martha's Vineyard.  After a Trevor Coleman (Missouri) rbi ground out in the first inning that gave Falmouth a 1-0 lead, Wareham answered in the second with 4 runs; highlighted by the two run homer by Leonida.Starting pitcher Robby Broach (Tulane), after allowing the first inning run, worked out of based loaded jams in the 2nd and 3rd innings before settling in and earning his 2nd win of the season.  Broach pitched 7 innings, struck out 5, walked 3 and allowed 5 hits.  Austin Graham (Alabama) pitched the final 2 innings in relief and did not allow a run.The Gateman offense would score singles runs in the 8th and 9th innings to account for the final total.  In the 8th, Connor Rowe (Texas) singled, advanced to second on a wild pitch and would score on an rbi single by Leonida.  In the 9th, consecutive hits by Blake Dean (LSU) and Aaron Baker (Oklahoma) would lead to a sacrafice fly by Kipp Schutz (Indiana) that would result in Wareham's 6th and final run.Combined, the teams would leave 23 runners on base; Wareham stranding 12.  The Gatemen had multiple hit games by Blake Dean, Aaron Baker, Cole Leonida and Connor Rowe.  Raynor Cambell (Baylor) went 3 for 5 and has now raised his average to .342.  Broach lowered his earned run average to 2.93.The win is Wareham's 5th straight and while still in last place in the Western Division, they are only 7 points behind division leader Hyannis (a 1-0 winner over Harwich). The Gatemen are just 5 points behind second place Bourne (a 1-0 loser to Cotuit) for second place and the final playoff spot in the extremely close race in the CCBL Western Division.  The Gatemen have an off-day on Wednesday and will return to action at home on Thursday vs. Eastern Division leading Orleans in the final game before the All-Star break.  Either Dallas Keuchel (Arkansas) or Matt Way (Washington State) will start for Wareham.

In the win, the Gatemen continued a pattern that has worked well for them in the past week: cutting down on their own mistakes and taking advantage of their opponent's mishaps.

"Things are going our way right now and hopefully we can keep it up," Wareham manager Cooper Farris said. "The guys are working hard and they've been learning from the mistakes they made early in the season."Trailing 1-0 after the first inning, Wareham (14-19-1) jumped out to a lead with a four-run second inning.Aaron Baker (Oklahoma) started things by getting hit by a pitch. Kipp Schutz (Indiana) grounded back to Falmouth pitcher Rex Brothers (Lipscomb), but Brothers threw the ball into center field trying to cut down Baker at second. It proved to be the first of two costly errors.When the next batter, Jake Lemmerman (Duke) tried to sacrifice bunt, Falmouth again committed a throwing error, allowing Baker to score and leaving runners on second and third.After a Connor Rowe (Texas) sacrifice fly, Cole Leonida (Georgia Tech) finished the scoring with a two-run home run to left field, his second of the season.Leonida went 2-for-4 with three RBIs in the game.While Wareham capitalized on errors, the Commodores couldn't take advantage of an erratic Robby Broach (Tulane).Broach, the Wareham starter, allowed an unearned run in the first inning, but kept Falmouth (16-15-1) off the board the rest of his day.The Commodores had the bases loaded with one out in the second inning, and loaded them again with two outs in the third, but couldn't get another runner across the plate.In the fourth inning, Broach (2-4) settled down and worked smoothly through the seventh inning, allowing the one unearned run on five hits.Wareham's recent hot streak puts them in sight of the division leaders, a position that most would have thought impossible just one week ago.It's all part of what is shaping up to be a wild finish in the Cape League's Western Division, where all five teams are separated by just seven points.But despite his team's recent success, Farris is sticking to his coach's book of clichés and refusing to look ahead."We've just got to play them, "Farris said. "Today is the only day that matters and this pitch is the only pitch that matters. We've just got to make sure we get better the next time out."

Newsletter extra: Vineyard trip a success

By any measure, Tuesday’s Cape League game on Martha’s Vineyard was a great success.The matchup between Wareham and Falmouth at Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School was a pleasure for the teams, the fans and everyone involved in organizing the event.The excitement of playing on the Vineyard even helped the players wake up for an unusually early 1 p.m. start.“It’s good for all of them,” Wareham manager Cooper Farris said. “They were pretty excited on the bus on the way over. Usually in the mornings you can’t get them moving. They were all moving this morning.”Attending the game, there was no way to know it was the first game ever played on Martha’s Vineyard. Everything ran that smoothly.The game started on time and was well attended, including a sizable group of children from a summer camp run by the Falmouth Department of Recreation.Part of the fun for many attendees was the adventure of being on an island and taking a boat to get there. It was also a new experience for many of the players.“Some of these guys have never been on an island – they’ve never been on a boat, so to get both teams doing that is a blessing,” Falmouth general manager Dan Dunn said.And the event was not without its celebrity presence. ESPN’s Steve Levy announced the starting lineups.Much of the credit for a successful day goes to Gary Simmons, the baseball coach at Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School, who worked tirelessly to make the game possible – including arriving at the field at 6 a.m. the day of the game to cut the infield grass.“We started the project about six years ago,” Simmons said. “It was built to have a second full-size diamond on the Vineyard. In the back of our minds we always wanted to host a Cape League game. We wanted to build the field effects for that level also, so we included a lot of foul territory, fully fenced, good distances down the lines. This is the culmination of six years of hard work from a lot of different people.”Simmons also thanked the many donors who made the field possible. Nearly $500,000 has gone into the project already, with more likely to come.The Vineyard game marked the fourth and final “off-Cape” game on this year’s schedule. Taking a moment to reflect on the experience of two games in New Bedford, one in Brockton and the Vineyard game, many agree the Cape League should make serious considerations to continue – and perhaps expand – this tradition in the years to come.“Not that many years ago we played a couple of games on Nantucket back when there used to be games out there, and so we seem to be the one that’s the traveling Cape show, so to speak,” Falmouth manager Jeff Trundy said. “But I think that’s good. I think it promotes the league and gives people from another part of the area an opportunity to watch the league, so it’s nice to be involved in that.”The Cape League has worked hard to give the gift of top-flight baseball to Cape residents. Now it can work on expanding the scope to allow more and more people the opportunity to see baseball played in its truest form.

On the Vineyard, Gatemen win fifth straight

Home or away. Travel by bus or boat. Night or day.It doesn't seem to matter to the Wareham Gatemen lately.The Gatemen won their fifth straight game Tuesday afternoon in their first ever venture to Martha's Vineyard, beating the Falmouth Commodores, 6-1, to narrow their deficit in the Cape League's West Division.All but written off a week ago, the Gatemen still have the league's worst record at 14-19-1 (29 points). But now, instead of being 13 points out of second place — and a spot in the playoffs — they're just five points out of second."We just got some things going our way," manager Cooper Farris said. "They worked hard all year and some of that is paying off now. Hopefully, they'll keep it up and not relax now that they're having some success."Robby Broach (2-4) went seven innings, allowing five hits, two walks and an unearned run. He struck out three. Austin Graham pitched the last two innings, allowing three hits and striking out two.Perhaps still feeling the effects of the ferry ride or the rare 1 p.m. start, the Gatemen made two errors in the bottom of the first as Falmouth (16-15-1) took a lead.Wareham, though, scored four unearned runs in the top of the second to take control.The Gatemen scored their first run on a hit-by-pitch and two errors. Connor Rowe followed with a sacrifice fly, and Cole Leonida blasted a two-run homer to cap the rally.Wareham tacked on a run in the eighth on Leonida's RBI single and another in the ninth, as Blake Dean doubled for the second time in the game, went to third on Aaron Baker's single and scored on Kipp Schutz's sacrifice fly.The victory made for a successful — but lengthy — trip. The Gatemen left Spillane Field at 7:30 a.m. and didn't return until after 8 p.m."It was a good trip," Farris said. "It was fun for the guys. A lot of them had never been over there."Wareham has today off before hosting Orleans, which leads the West Division with the league's best record, at 5 p.m. Thursday. It's a rare early weekday start at Spillane to accommodate major league scouts who have flooded the Cape ahead of Saturday's All-Star Game in Chatham. The early start will let the scouts catch part of a 7 p.m. game, too.Dallas Keuchel is scheduled to start for the Gatemen, but his pitch count will be limited so he can pitch in the All-Star Game, too. He could also be sent to the bullpen for the game, in which case Matt Way would get the start.

Cape Cod visits the Island

A carnival atmosphere attended the baseball game between the Wareham Gatemen and the Falmouth Commodores, Tuesday, at the high school "Field of Dreams." It was the first time ever that a Cape Cod League game was played on the Vineyard.Tents had been raised to shade the lucky from a hot sun. Many more found some shade in the woods beyond the right field line. Not a few had thought to bring umbrellas. Booths offered food and programs, 50-50 raffle tickets, and opportunities to contribute to charities including the Jimmy Fund. Many chose to spread blankets on the embankment behind right field. Hundreds of kids collected autographs from accommodating players. Especially celebrational were the red and blue shirts worn by 120 campers from Falmouth who from time to time organized themselves into a cheering section for the Commodores, even attempting a wave or two.The game was a win for the Wareham Gatemen, 6-1, extending their current winning streak to five games.The Commodores struck first, posting a run in the first inning. But the Gatemen took advantage of Falmouth errors in the second and jumped to a 4-1 lead. Cole Leonida, of Georgia Tech, the Wareham catcher, capped the inning with a two-run homer. Wareham would add single runs in the last two innings.It was a grand day for the grand American pastime and surely must have gratified the Islanders who worked so hard to build the field and successfully entice the Cape Cod League to pay it a visit.

Cape League Game is a Huge Hit

In every sense, last Tuesday was a perfect day for baseball on the Vineyard. The sun shone brightly over the new baseball diamond at Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School, as a tangle of wispy clouds stubbornly refused to give way fully to the brilliant blue behind. The smell of hot dogs and hamburgers hung thick in the air, while dust kicked up on the infield floated by on a slight ocean breeze.Last Tuesday marked the first-ever Cape Cod League baseball league played on the Vineyard. By any measure, the game was a runaway success. Crowds of people jammed the bleachers along the first and third base lines, while people sitting on blankets and lawn chairs dotted the hill that runs along the entire outfield fence.It’s hard to tell, exactly, how many people attended Tuesday’s game between the Wareham Gatemen and the Falmouth Commodores, which Wareham won 6-1. The Web site for the Gatemen lists the official attendance as 2,232, an eye-popping figure when considering most Cape League games attract around 1,000 fans. But that number may be misleading: tickets were not sold for the game, and people were instead asked only to make a suggested donation of $5 to Vineyard Baseball to go towards completing work on the high school athletic field.Whatever the final attendance figures, it was clear that the turnout was tremendous. “It was awesome . . . better than we hoped for,” said Gary Simmons, coach of the high school baseball team and president of Vineyard Baseball. “I think everyone was excited to see this high level of play in their own backyards.”Coach Simmons is spearheading an informal effort to explore whether a team from the Cape Cod League might move to the Vineyard on a permanent basis. Both local baseball enthusiasts and league officials say such an idea is a longshot at best, but if Tuesday’s robust turnout was any indication, it is clearly not impossible.Dann Dunn, the general manager for the Commodores, said he didn’t entirely rule out a Cape League team coming to the Vineyard. “I would say it’s remote, but not out of the question,” he said, surveying the crowd around the ballpark. “If we get this type of crowd every game, it would be something the league would want to think about.”Mr. Dunn explained that the Cape League is run entirely by volunteers, who are driven not by paychecks but by a pure love for the game. While many major league players are now making headlines for taking steroids and demanding trades in the middle of the season, the players of the Cape Cod Baseball League in the summer are working part-time jobs to make ends meet while playing games almost every night, Mr. Dunn said.And instead of living in luxury homes and apartments, Cape league players live with host families who offer up space in their homes and hearts. It is estimated that one in five major league players played in the Cape league at one time; including popular Red Sox players like Kevin Youkilis, Jacoby Ellsbury, Mike Lowell and Mo Vaughn. At one point, all of these players lived with a host family while playing for the Cape league. Mr. Dunn said the Cape league takes its role in the community very seriously.“We know the memories people have of these players will last forever . . . they may go on to play in the major [league], but to the people here they will always be that young kid they saw hit a home run or make a great catch on a summer evening on the Cape,” he said.Chuck Sturtevant, the former general manager and treasurer of the Commodores, said the league has a standing order for players to create positive memories for the fans.“If I ever saw a player who refused to give an autograph to a young fan, he would be the next bus out of here . . . but that has never been an issue. These players may go on to the majors, but at this level they are just happy to be playing baseball,” he said.Mr. Sturtevant was visibly moved when recalling tales of his former players — most notably when major league all-stars Darren Erstad and Eric Milton inducted him into the Cape Cod league hall of fame in 2002. “A lot of these guys don’t forget their time here because they don’t want to forget . . . to them it was special.”It was clear a special bond was already forming between some of the players and the Vineyard fans throughout the game. During the bottom of the fourth, with Wareham leading 4-1 and the game already in hand, a pair of pitchers for the Commodores — Rex Brothers and Nate Stritz — took time off from warming in the bullpen to talk to some young fans.“You’re from [the Vineyard]? Do you like baseball?” asked Brothers, as the young fan nodded in agreement and climbed to the top of the chain-link fence to scoop up an autographed program.When asked if he could throw the ball as hard as Red Sox pitcher Josh Beckett, Stritz carefully worded his answer. “I’m not sure [who throws faster] . . . it would be close,” he said.By the bottom of the eighth inning, after the Gatemen tacked on another run to make it 5-1, most of the drama surrounding who would win the game had faded. The Commodores were listed on the scoreboard as the home team, but it was evident people were more interested in just watching the game then the final outcome.When Wareham catcher Cole Leonida, a standout at Georgia Tech University, pounded a two-run home run to left field in the second inning, many in the crowd stood and cheered as if he was one of their own. “That shot landed in the Monster seats . . . it could have hit the Coke bottles,” said one Vineyard woman, imaginatively comparing the cozy confines of the high school field (315 feet on the corners and 385 straight away to center) to Fenway Park.There were signs everywhere of major league careers to come. A man wearing sunglasses and holding a notebook confirmed he was a major league scout for the New York Mets but declined to give his name. As he jotted down notes on seemingly every player and every play, he explained that scouts are generally assigned to two teams in the league with the goal of identifying potential major league players.“This league has a history of players who come out and break into the majors relatively quickly. Jacoby [Ellsbury] played for Falmouth back in 2004,” he said.But despite the radar guns trained on young fireballers and the reading of the starting lineup by ESPN’s Steve Levy, the game had a markedly minor league feel. Players from both teams walked among the fans to sell 50/50 raffle tickets, with a portion of the proceeds going to complete the work on the high school baseball field. The high school baseball booster club ran the concession stand, while young fans scampered after foul balls to retrieve what would surely become treasured souvenirs.Wareham manager Cooper Farris said he was impressed by the Vineyard ballpark and the healthy crowd.“This whole experience has been great for the fans and for us. Our players were pretty excited on the boat coming over. Usually in the mornings you can’t get them moving. But they were moving this morning,” he said.The Vineyard game marked the fourth and final off-Cape game on this year’s schedule. There was a general agreement among players, coaches and league officials that the tradition should continue in the coming years, which might even include a Cape team being relocated to the Vineyard. But for now, many were simply happy for a sunny day at the ball park on the Vineyard. “I just thank God every day for the chance to play baseball,” said Wareham first baseman Aaron Baker earnestly during an autograph session after the game. “I hope we can bring some joy to people watching this game that I love to play . . . and it seems people really love baseball here.”