playoffs: y-d over chatham, falmouth over bourne

(I had my choice of games today and went to the Falmouth-Bourne game. Turns out, Chatham-Y-D was probably a better game. In that one, Matt Long hit a walk-off RBI single in the bottom of the ninth to give the Red Sox a 4-3 victory in a back-and-forth game. You can find full recaps on chathamas.com and codball.com. My recap of the Falmouth-Bourne game is below.)

When Josh Satin took an inside-out swing and lined an 0-2 pitch into right field for an RBI single, Aaron Crow was upset.

That was just about the only thing he had to be upset about.

Crow, the most dominant pitcher on the Cape all summer, continued his dominance in the playoffs, allowing one run and striking out seven in six innings as second-seeded Falmouth rolled past No. 1 Bourne 7-2 at Doran Park.

The right-hander from Missouri -- who finished the regular season with a league-leading .67 ERA -- was in control almost from the get-go. He allowed a walk and a single in the first but then retired 12 in a row. After the first, Bourne didn't get a baserunner until the sixth when Bill Perry walked. Perry eventually came home on Satin's single to right, but that was all Crow allowed.

And by then, he had a big lead. Falmouth scored a run in the first, four in the third and one in the fourth to give Crow all the cushion he needed.

With the pitching match-up, it looked like offense would be at a premium on both sides. D.J. Mitchell was on the hill for Bourne, making his first start since striking out 15 against Wareham in the final week of the regular season. Mitchell finished fourth in the league in ERA.

But the righty from Clemson didn't have things going his way this time. He didn't get hit that hard, but Falmouth found the holes. The Commodores' first run came home when Phil Carey chopped a sinlge just over the leaping Addison Maruszak at shortstop.

From there, Bourne's defense created a few holes. After an infield single by Joey Wong and a walk to Conor Gillaspie in the third, Bourne catcher Adam Zornes fired to second on a pickoff attempt. The ball bounced in front of the bag and skipped away, allowing Wong and Gillaspie to move up a base. David Adams followed with a ground ball to shortstop, where Maruszak fielded it cleanly. But the throw pulled Satin off the base at first, allowing Adams to reach and Wong to score. Aja Barto then laced a two-run double down the third-base line, the hardest-hit ball Falmouth had all day. That made the score 5-0.

Falmouth tacked on a run in the fourth on an RBI single by Wong and another in the ninth on Jeremy Farrell's ground-rule double that scored John Wallace, who'd tripled with two outs.

Bourne's only chance for a rally came in the seventh when Ben Guez led off the inning with a solo home run off reliever Aaron Shafer. Bourne put two more men on in that inning, but couldn't get anything else across. Shafer, who was a starter most of the season, picked up a three-inning save.

NOTES

• This was my first time seeing Crow and the thing that struck me was his confidence. Maybe this is something I wouldn't notice if I didn't know how dominant he was, but you can definitely see it. He's in command of everything. He's always in rhythm. He works quickly. He seems to trust his stuff. Easy enough, you might say, for someone with a 96-mph fastball, but there are plenty of guys throwing in the mid-90s who don't have that confidence. I think it's one of the things that separates Crow.
  
• I picked Bourne to win this series, but that prediction didn't look too good today. The Braves faced great pitching, sure, but their lineup isn't that potent, and not as potent as it was with Mitch Moreland in the mix. I still think they've got a shot with Rick Zagone going Sunday, but the initial reason I gave them a shot was Falmouth's quasi-limp to the finish line in the regular season. But today, the Commodores looked like a team to be reckoned with. That lineup has some great hitters, and they took advantage of every opportunity.
  If the offense is going, and the pitching is where it usually is, it's hard to pick against Falmouth.
• Bourne's Bill Perry was awarded the John Claffey New England Top Prospect award before the game. The infielder from Hartford hails from Falmouth and he started the season with the Braves as a temporary player. But he finished as a key part of the team, hitting .222 with two home runs and 10 RBI. Receiving the award had to be a special moment for a guy who undoubtedly grew up on Cape League baseball.
• This was my first trip to Doran Park, the Braves' new field, and I came away impressed. It's a very nice facility. The field itself is beautiful, and the seating area down the third-base line -- with tiers providing a perfect spot for beach chairs and a perfect view -- is great. I know Bourne was at the back of the pack in attendance numbers, but I can't see that lasting. Once fans go to Doran Park, they'll come back.
• Greg from Codball was in attendance with his son, and he was kind enough to give me one of his famous codball shirts. He also made a nice catch on a foul ball, though he didn't give that to me. If you haven't been to codball.com, you should go.