Hyannis comes back with a huge eighth inning to beat Harwich 10-3

Harbor Hawks take advantage of mistakes made by the Mariners

By: Mike Maynard

The Hyannis Harbor Hawks took home a comeback win against the Harwich Mariners on Wednesday night. A six-run eighth inning proved essential for the Harbor Hawks completing the comeback.

Trey Lipsey walked to lead off the eighth for Hyannis. Cam Smith singled Lipsey over and Austin Kelly smacked a single into right field to score the run. Nick Mitchell smoked a groundball that couldn’t be fielded at third to bring in another run for the Harbor Hawks.

“We put a little bit of pressure on [Harwich’s] defense a few times,” head coach Eric Beattie said. “The guys were buying into a little bit of small ball too so that was good.”

Eric Snow continued the offense for Hyannis, hitting a single up the middle, bringing in the third and fourth runs of the inning, while Mitchell came in on a passed ball to make it five. Bradke Lohry came up for the second time in the inning and walked to make it a six-run eighth for the Harbor Hawks.

The Mariners struggled on Wednesday, with an uncharacteristically large number of mistakes up and down the roster.

“We hit some balls hard and took advantage of some mistakes by a great Harwich team,” Beattie said. “We usually don’t get those but we took advantage [Wednesday].”

In the top of the second inning, Hyannis got its first base runner of the evening. Mike Sirota walked and was advanced to third with help from a single off the bat of Snow. Snow then attempted to steal second base and the throwdown allowed Sirota to come home and score the first run of the game.

Harwich got its first run on the board for the first time in the bottom of the sixth. A single and a Harbor Hawk error in the field were the precursors to a three-run home run off the bat of Lorenzo Carter, which gave the Mariners a 3-1 lead.

Sirota got on base for the third time of the contest in the top of the seventh with a walk. After a pickoff move caught him in between first and second, Harwich had multiple mishaps in the field that allowed Sirota to round every base and score.

Hyannis wasn’t done and poured it on in the ninth. After loading the bases, two wild pitches allowed runs to score to put the Harbor Hawks’ run total at 10.

Hayden Frank got the start on the bump for Hyannis in this one. This was probably his best outing of the season throwing four scoreless innings, only allowing two hits.

Dennis Colleran made his first appearance on Cape Cod in this one and struck out one batter and didn’t surrender a run in his one inning pitched.

Kros Sively and Matthew Maloney came in to pitch for the eighth and ninth and shut the door on the Mariners to close out the game on top for the Harbor Hawks.

It was another showing of the great ability of the 2023 Hyannis Harbor Hawks to come back after being down early. They will look to build off off this win when they host the Cotuit Kettleers on Thursday, June 29. First pitch at McKeon Park will be at 6 p.m.

“We scored first, we gave up the lead and fought back right away to take it back, so that was good,” Beattie said.

Mike Maynard can be reached at mikemay62@gmail.com and followed on Twitter @mikecmaynard.