yd and falmouth sweep into finals

(Two very good games tonight and two sweeps. Falmouth beat Bourne 5-3 and Y-D bested Chatham 4-0. The finals begin Monday at Y-D at 3 p.m. Here's my recap of the Y-D vs. Chatham game.)

The Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox only had four hits.

Three of them went a long way.

The dynamic Red Sox offense -- which led the league in home runs by a wide margin -- put its power on full display as Gordon Beckham, Nick Romero and Jason Castro homered to turn a pitchers' duel into a 4-0 victory. Scott Green, D.J. Mauldin and Nick Cassavechia combined to shut out Chatham and give the defending champion Red Sox a return trip to the title series.

Before the game, Chatham's Tom Milone was presented with the league's Outstanding Pitcher award, and the USC lefty showed why in six of the first seven innings.

But the first inning did him in. Milone struck out two but sandwiched in between was a base hit by Buster Posey. That put a man on for Beckham, who didn't waste the chance. He just had to be a little patient.

Beckham ripped the first pitch he saw from Milone down the left-field line. It would have been gone, but the ball hooked foul. Two pitches later, Beckham didn't hook it, this time crushing a two-run blast.

Milone was simply dominant from there, retiring 19 of the next 20 batters he faced and not allowing a hit until a solo home run by Romero in the eighth. He struck out nine, and his dominance kept Chatham in the game.

Green didn't let the A's any further in. The 6'8" righty from Kentucky allowed three hits and struck out seven in 6.1 innings. He got himself into a handful of jams, but worked through each and every one. In the first, Chatham put two men on before Green got three quick outs. In the fourth, Green stranded Jermaine Curtis at third, striking out Jeremy Synan to do it. And in the sixth, with runners on first and second, Green got Allan Dykstra to line out then struck out Tim Federowicz to end the inning. In the seventh, Green hit Zach Putnam with one out, the impetus for a call to the bullpen. Mauldin came in and after falling behind 3-1 to Sean O'Brien, he started a strike-'em-out, throw-'em-out inning-ending double play.

Chatham got another baserunner in the eighth when Addison Johnson lined a one-out single to right, but Mauldin struck out Kyle Seager and got a little help from his defense to get Curtis. Romero went to his left at third base to make a diving stop and came up firing to get Curtis for the final out of the inning.

Y-D added an insurance run on Castro's line-drive home run off Kevin Couture, but closer Nick Cassavechia didn't need the extra help. After hitting Federowicz with one out, Cassavechia got Synan to ground into a game-ending 6-4-3 double play.

NOTES

• The crowd in Chatham was huge. I would have taken a picture but I didn't have my camera. I can tell you the hill in right field was almost completely covered, the fences down both lines had people standing two-deep and everybody in the bleachers was squeezed in tight. I didn't hear a crowd estimate, but I'm going to guess 5,000. They didn't announce what the 50/50 prize was but it had to be way up there. I only know I did not win.

• Green and Milone were both completely dominant. They both flashed great control and consistently got ahead. The difference in the two was in what the hitters were doing. Against Green, they were flailing. He generated dozens of swings-and-misses. Against Milone, on the other hand, the hitters were frozen. He used his big curveball to get ahead and Y-D's hitters rarely swung at it. Since he almost always threw it for strikes, hitters were constantly in a hole.

• A draft-eligible sophomore, Green was a 15th-round pick of the Boston Red Sox this spring and he has until Wednesday to sign. If he was looking for a sweeter deal by pitching on the Cape, he may have gotten it. His performance Sunday was the finishing touch on a spectacular summer.
  

• As for Milone, I've got to think he'll be high on draft boards next year. I'm not sure he throws that hard, but he seems to have a great feel for pitching. His control was among the best in the league this summer -- 46 strikeouts and just 7 walks. Those numbers are similar to the ones put up by James Simmons last summer, and Simmons was a first-round pick. Milone has the added advantage of being a lefty.

• Sean Ochinko didn't play tonight. He apparently has an elbow bruise. Not sure if he'll miss any more time, but if anybody can make up for the loss of a .300 hitter with eight home runs, it's Y-D. The Red Sox have some ridiculous depth. Grant Green, who's been the ultimate utility-man this year while hitting .291, started at first in Ochinko's place.
  

• Speaking of depth, it's amazing how much Y-D manager Scott Pickler juggles the lineup. In trying to put together those previews earlied in the week, I looked back through old box scores to figure out Y-D's probable starters. I failed. The lineups were never the same, which is unusual for a very good team. But Pickler, I guess, pushes all the right buttons.

• The Cape Cod Times is reporting on its Insider Blog that Falmouth's Conor Gillaspie is heading home tomorrow and won't play in the finals. That really hurts Falmouth's chances, but honestly, I'm not sure those chances were that great anyway. This was my first chance to see Y-D, and they are impressive in every facet of the game. A complete team if there ever was one. I can't see them losing two out of three, even against Falmouth's starting pitchers.