daily fog: catching fire

There are only four teams over .500 right now, and if you asked me to name them without looking at the standings, the Bourne Braves would not be one of my choices.

But the Braves are indeed one of those teams.

Thanks to a five-game winning streak, the Braves are now 8-7. They beat first-place Cotuit 5-2 last night. In my mind, this has been a quiet winning streak. I'm not sure why. It could be that I was lost in all the roster changes to notice.

Quiet or not, it's the longest winning streak of the year by any team.

For Bourne, it started with an 8-3 victory over Y-D last Friday. Nick McCully's fog-shortened perfect game made it two the next night. On Sunday, the Braves beat Falmouth in 15 innings. They blew past Wareham 13-4 on Tuesday and eased past Cotuit last night. In the five games, Bourne has scored 31 runs and allowed only 11. In their first ten games, they scored 39 runs and allowed 58.

So what changed? Clearly the pitching settled down. Victor Black (Dallas Baptist), McCully (Coastal Carolina),Bryce Stowell (UC Irvine), Ricky Bowen (Mississippi State) and Nate Reed (Pittsburgh) have all turned in quality starts during the streak. That's probably the biggest difference.

But the offense has heated up too, which coincided with the arrival of Wichita State's Dusty Coleman. The Braves lost their first two with him in the lineup, but they haven't lost since. Coleman is hitting .367.

Jordan Henry (Ole Miss), a former SEC Freshman of the Year, has also caught fire. He's eight for his last 11 and is now hitting .350. Kyle Roller (East Carolina) also is hot, but he's been hot from the beginning. He's hitting .380 to lead the team, and he also has 12 RBI.

All in all, it's enough to make the Braves look like a contender. But it's also a reminder that at this stage in the game, nobody's out of it. The best team in the league and the worst team are currently separated by 4.5 games. A win streak like the one Bourne is on would erase that pretty quick.

Elsewhere

• Chatham climbed out of last place with a 5-2 victory over Y-D. Grant Green (USC) continued to crush the ball, going 4-for-5 with a home run. He's now hitting .452, good for second in the league. Cory Olson (UC Irvine), who's also on fire, went 2-for-5 and scored the eventual winning run, while Kyle Seager (North Carolina) picked up his first two hits of the summer. Sammy Solis (San Diego), who hadn't allowed an earned run before last night, allowed two, but still struck out six and picked up the win. Brad Boxberger (USC) got his sixth save. For Y-D, Jeff Inman (Stanford) pitched well in his first start, striking out nine in five shutout innings.
  

• Also of note for Chatham, highly-touted freshman Matt Harvey (North Carolina) came out of the bullpen last night for his first Cape League appearance. He worked two scoreless innings.
  

• A.J. Pollock (Notre Dame) went 5-for-5 to take over the league lead in batting average and power Falmouth past Wareham 3-2. Pollock scored the go-ahead run in the top of the ninth on a single by Jimmy Cesario (Houston).
  

• A day after the Orleans Cardinals had their best offensive game of the season, they ran into a team that had a better one. Harwich pounded out 12 hits and blew past Orleans 11-3. J.T. Wise (Oklahoma) went 3-for-4 with two RBI, while Dustin Ackley (North Carolina) went 2-for-3 with three runs scored. Billy Bullock (Florida) allowed one run in 7.2 innings to pick up the win for the Mariners.
  

• The bullpen shined as Hyannis picked up a 7-4 win over Brewster. Ryan Sharpley (Notre Dame) relieved starterAlex McRee (Georgia) and worked four impressive innings, striking out eight and allowing just one run. Matt Ridings (Western Kentucky) worked a scoreless eighth and Russell Brewer (Vanderbilt) picked up his league-best seventh save with a scoreless ninth. Brewer still hasn't allowed a run this summer, earned or unearned. At the plate for Hyannis, three players -- Luke Murton (Georgia Tech), Ben Paulsen (Clemson) and Curt Casali (Vanderbilt) -- hit home runs.
  

What to Watch For Tonight

• Harwich visits Hyannis in what should be a big-time pitchers' duel. Andrew Carraway (Virginia) will make his fourth start for the Mets, while J.J. Hoover (Calhoun CC) goes for Harwich. Between them, they've allowed three runs and struck out 25 in 22.2 innings.
  

• Another nice match-up in Brewster as Buddy Bauman (Missouri State) takes his 1.02 ERA to the mound for the Whitecaps against Cotuit's Matt Fairel (Florida State). A late arrival from the College World Series, Fairel allowed one run in his first start.

• Finally, Chatham will sends its first pitching reinforcement to the hill as Justin Marks (Louisville) makes his first start. The A's also have the UNC duo of Adam Warren and Alex White waiting in the wings.