chatham vs harwich, july 25

If familiarity breeds contempt, the Harwich Mariners are pretty fed up with the Chatham A's. Chatham's probably fine with the arrangement.

Wednesday marked the third consecutive night that Chatham played Harwich, and for the third consecutive night, Chatham beat Harwich. The A's exploded this time and pounded the Mariners 10-3 at Whitehouse Field.

It was a scheduling quirk created by a rainout that brought the teams together, and it couldn't have worked out better for the A's. The three wins over Harwich are part of a five-game winning streak.

Wednesday's games had the makings of a pitchers' duel early on, with Harwich's Josh Zeid (Vanderbilt) and Chatham's Alex White (North Carolina) matching each other through three scoreless frames. But only White held up his end of the bargain. Chatham got to Zeid in the fourth.

Back-to-back walks gave Chatham a scoring chance, and Zach Putnam (Michigan) delivered, belting a three-run home run into the trees past the left-field fence. Chatham added another run in the fourth on a squeeze bunt. Harwich first baseman Jared Bolden (VCU) nearly made a spectacular play when he charged, fielded the bunt, tagged the runner heading to first and flipped the ball home with his glove. But his flip sailed high and Chatham scored for the 4-0 lead.
Chatham found more offense in the sixth. With the bases loaded, Allan Dykstra (Wake Forest) crushed a grand slam to right field as the A's blew the game open. Dykstra now has 25 RBI, and has raised his average dramatically in the last week.

With a big cushion, White kept pitching well. He allowed just three hits through five before allowing a walk and a double in the sixth. But with runners on second and third, White got Cole Figueroa (Florida) to ground out, then posted back-to-back strikeouts to finish off six shutout innings. Jeff Lorick (Virginia) relieved White and allowed a run in two innings of work.

Both Harwich and Chatham put a familiar face in an unfamiliar spot in the ninth. Harwich outfielder Alex Avila (Alabama) took the mound and worked a scoreless frame. Chatham catcher Tim Federowicz (North Carolina) pitched the bottom of the ninth and allowed two runs. He struck out two and would have been out of the inning with just one run allowed, but a popup that would have been the third out fell in the infield when nobody called it.

With the victory, Chatham moved to 20-12-3. Harwich dropped to 12-22-1.

A few observations:

• Zeid was consistently hitting 91 with his fastball and getting up to 92 on occasion, but once he started struggling with his control in the fourth, things unraveled. Wednesday's game was Zeid's 11th appearance but just his fourth start. He had a 2.14 ERA heading into the game with 27 strikeouts and five walks.
• White was making his second start and was more impressive than he was in the first. He consistently got ahead of hitters and really controlled the game. His fastball was sitting around 88-89, occasionally getting up to 90. If White, a freshman from UNC, can continue to pitch well, he gives Chatham's rotation a big boost.
• Earlier in the season, Chatham's bullpen was struggling mightily, and Lorick was in the thick of it. His ERA heading into Wednesday was 7.91 but he looked great in his two innings. From what I can gather, the bullpen has been better of late, a big reason why Chatham is on a roll.
• Chatham's starting pitching hasn't been too shabby either. In the five-game winning streak and the tied that preceded it, A's starters have combined to allow just five earned runs in 35.2 innings. Tom Milone (USC) led the way with his complete-game shutout, Putnam pitched five scoreless innings and White pitched his six shutout frames Wednesday. The only starter who's allowed more than one run in this stretch is Nathan Moreau (Georgia), who surrendered three earned Tuesday night.
• With some good hitters finally getting hot, Chatham's lineup is looking more and more fearsome. Addison Johnson (Clemson) in the leadoff spot and Kyle Seager (North Carolina) in the two-hole are both hitting well and getting on base. Behind them, Jermaine Curtis (UCLA) continues his steady play and Dykstra continues to sizzle. Putnam, who's long been considered a big prospect at Michigan, is starting to put things together as well. The fourth-inning blast was Putnam's fourth of the season. With Andrew Crisp (South Carolina) hitting .291, Sean O'Brien (Virginia Tech) batting .248 and Scott Lyons (Mt. San Antonio) coming in at .250, the A's suddenly have a very solid top-to-bottom lineup.
• Curtis is a fun player to watch. When he draws a walk, he runs to first base. In between innings, when he takes the field, he runs full speed and sometimes has Dykstra throw him a tailing popup that he can run under. In a league where the pressure of playing in front of scouts every night can bog players down, it's nice to see a guy like Curtis just having fun. I think it spreads to the rest of the team.
• This was my first chance to see Figueroa in person, and I thought he looked pretty good. The freshman from Florida is starting the all-star game, and he flashed a good glove at shortstop, making a nice diving stop on a ball up the middle and catching a sharp line drive later that inning.

I'll have photos from this game up next week.