The College Baseball Blog made the trip down to Brockton MA to take in the First Annual Cape Cod Hall of Fame Classic between the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox and the Falmouth Commodores. The game was played at Campanelli Stadium which serves as the home of the independent league Brockton Rox.
The Red Sox were able to pick up a 5-4 victory over the Commodores holding off a ninth inning rally as the Commodores had the tying run on third base with two outs but UC-Riverside closer Joe Kelly was able to get Darrin Ruff to ground out to second to end the game.
The Red Sox sent Jerry Sullivan from Oral Roberts University to the mound to take on Commodore starting pitcher Rex Brothers out of Lipscomb University. Sullivan is a 6-4 210 pound right hand pitcher who is able to dominate the strikezone by spotting a low 90’s fastball with a great curveball which makes him very difficult to hit. He had one tough inning on Saturday where the Commodores got to him for three runs in the third inning but was outstanding in his 6.1 innings of work by keeping batters off balance. Rex Brothers on the other hand is a 6’0 185 pound lefty that really didn’t have much on his stuff tonight with a high 80’s fastball and a mediocre curveball.
The biggest star of the night was Jared Mitchell (LSU) of Yarmouth-Dennis who really showed off his talents by being a force on the base paths with a stolen base and scoring on a subsequent single to the second basemen from second base beating the throw at the plate. He was just impressive all around and really stood out on the evening.
The biggest issue I had on the evening was that this game was played in Brockton where alcohol was served at the game. I just think that the Rox should have shut off the beer taps for the evening with a college event going on. I also thought the game lacked the intensity of a game on the Cape as the 1,173 people were spread apart in the minor league facility.
