SOUTH YARMOUTH – Southpaw Drew Gallant had never experienced a game-winning moment before.
But Wednesday evening in the bottom of the seventh inning, tied 6-6 with one out and a 3-2 count, he laced an opposite field single with bases juiced for the game-winner.
Dennis-Yarmouth’s Drew Gallant got the game-winning hit, as well as the win for himself on the mound in dramatic, walk-off fashion Wednesday afternoon at Merrill “Red” Wilson Field in South Yarmouth.
Sean Walsh/Capecod.com Sports
A lefty hitter as well as a left-handed pitcher, Gallant was afforded the statistical unlikelihood of trying to get the job done against one of the best high school pitchers on Cape Cod in Nauset’s Chris Holcomb: a lefty. Unfazed by the situation, Gallant helped his own cause and was then appropriately mobbed in the middle of the infield diamond by his Dennis-Yarmouth teammates.
Gallant (1-0) went the full seven innings for the Dolphins, struck out six and allowed six runs (four earned) on eight hits and two walks.
Holcomb went 6 1/3 innings for the Warriors in their first game of the season and struck out nine, including the side in the first, but threw over 120 pitches in the effort. He allowed six hits to just three batters combined and walked three with one hit batsman. Three of his seven runs allowed were unearned.
Gallant, Mike Knell and Mike Dunn each went 2-4 on the day, with both Knell and Dunn earning their key hits in a two-run fifth and the two-run seventh inning.
Nauset plated three runs in the first with shortstop Gerritt Merrill (2-4) collecting an RBI-double, but Gallant held the Warriors scoreless until a three-run sixth.
Dennis-Yarmouth was held scoreless for the first three frames, but then methodically chipped away at Holcomb and the Warriors’ resolve with one run in the fourth, two in the fifth, two more in the sixth and the final two runs in the seventh to win it.
Down 6-5, it was Dunn who set the table for the Dolphins in the bottom of the seventh when he led off with a single and advanced to second on an error, then came home when Knell roped an 0-2 Holcomb offering to center. Trevor Allen walked to put men on first and second and then Ben Chapasko laid down a solid sacrifice bunt to put runners on second and third. Holcomb intentionally walked Mat Scruggs and then Gallant weaved his magic.
“They wanna fight, they don’t want to lay down,” head coach J.D. Stone said. “They’re realizing this… Right now, we’re staying positive.”
— Sean Walsh is the sports editor for www.capecod.com. His email is [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @coachwalshccbm
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