By Alexander Schaefer
On a scorching Father’s Day, The New Haven County Cutters came through with a thrilling 4 – 3 win in front of 1,200 fans at historic Yale Field.
With a line-up hampered by injuries, including a groin injury to crowd-favorite and team home-run leader Derrick Gibson, they faced the Brockton Rox with three starters who were added to the team in the last couple of days. The team was wrapping up a seven-game homestand in which they had won four of six games, two in the very late innings, including one that went into the 12th inning.
Manager Mike Church conceded that they had been hitting the ball well late in the game but also held that, “In the middle innings, when it’s second and third – no outs, you have to get the job done.” He said this would be the key to the team being able to make a run at the league title. He was enthused with their pitching of late but has not been happy with their defense as their games have been littered with errors and noted that, “If we can keep away from those I think we’ll start to turn a corner.”
The Cutters got the festivities started in the bottom of the first inning as Jose Delgado drew a lead-off walk and scored on a Thomari Storey-Harden single to right field. After the six-foot six-inch Harden stormed second for a surprising stolen base, Horace Lawrence ripped a single up the middle to bring the big guy home.
The Rox, though, were quick to retaliate in the second as a Guye Senjem dropped a single into left field and and Keith Brachold took advantage of the situation by hitting a sac-fly to collect the RBI. The Rox put two more runners on base but Cutters starting pitcher Courtney Hall was able to work his way out of the inning to limit the Rox.
As was the case in the previous games, the Cutters threatened numerous times during the middle innings but could not come up with the clutch hits to capitalize and Rox pitcher Robert Averette was able to settle down for a while and hold the Cutters at bay.
The Rox put two more runs on the board in the sixth inning but the Cutters tied it up in the seventh when Eric Cirella followed his first hit as a professional with his first run as a professional. Then, in the bottom of the ninth, the Cutters again summoned some late game heroics as Jose Delgado singled to center, stole second and then Thomari Storey-Harden hit a towering blast into the gap in right-center to bring home the winning run.
Coach Church gave a lot of credit to his pitching staff and was pleased with the contribution that his new players have been making. Aside from Cirella, Doug Vroman, a University of New Haven product, has had some big hits lately and according to Church, “never gets a bad jump on the ball.” He also gave credit to Jeff Mayo, a replacement at catcher, who battled hard and displayed his arm strength by throwing out a base runner in the fifth.
He did reiterate that, “the team’s focus level goes up in the ninth inning. We need to keep that same mentality in the third and fourth innings. We seem to score early and score late.” He was encouraged to see the defense display no errors and was glad to for the team’s record to be back at the .500 mark.
On account of Fathers Day, the game was followed by a chance for dad and children to have a catch on the field. Benji and Michael Auslin, who attended their first Cutters game along with mom Ginko, took advantage of this opportunity, as did many others.