Playing under a low sky and high winds, the Hurricanes won a bomb-fest, 30-23, over the Brewhas in Martha’s Vineyard men’s Island Softball League play Monday night at War Memorial field in Vineyard Haven. With the win, the ’Canes go to 3-2 and the Brewhas slip to 1-1 on the season.
The teams combined for five home runs. Shaun Reed and Matt Gibson jump-started the Brewhas with first-inning dingers for a short-lived lead. Brewhas pitcher Matt Rivers helped his cause with a third-inning blast, immediately followed by Derek Chrebet’s homer. Mr. Chrebet led all hitters with four hits on the night.
2016 league MVP Joel Rebello hit the lone ’Canes homer, a three-run blast in the third inning, and robbed the Brewhas of a fifth longball with a leaping catch off a Matt Alexander drive before tumbling off the wind fence in centerfield.
The ’Canes scored four in the first, and the Brewhas tallied nine in their half of the opening frame for a 9-4 advantage after one inning.
The ’Canes tied it in the second with five runs courtesy of four hits and a walk. The Brewhas countered with a pair in third of the top of third before the ’Canes erupted for 11 runs in the bottom of the inning, scoring 10 of them with two outs.
After the early fireworks, the game settled into a more traditional contest in which tablesetters, such as the Hurricanes’ Zach Clark and Mike Jackson, were on base six times in front of the top of the order.
That consistency was important to the outcome. The ’Canes led 20-11 after three innings and survived a nine-run outburst by the Brewhas, who kept moving the line with nine hits and benefited from a pair of Hurricane miscues to tie it at 20-20.
The ’Canes grabbed a pair in their half of the fourth to lead 22-20. Over the next three innings, the Hurricanes scored eight times compared with three Brewhas tallies.
Slow-pitch softball is, essentially, a game of outs. Outs can be hard to get, particularly in a game played by fit, athletic hitters as Monday’s game was. The Hurricanes won that war, holding the Brewhas scoreless in two innings, while scoring in every inning themselves.