Teehan Fans Five in Harwich Debut

BREWSTER, Mass – Monday night it was announced that Mass Maritime pitcher John Teehan (Boston, Mass) would be signing with the Harwich Mariners of the Cape Cod Baseball League to add some pitching depth to the roster in the final days of the regular season before the Cape League playoffs began. Tuesday morning he signed his contract with the team and reported to the Mariners home field, Whitehouse Field for a doubleheader which he watched from the bullpen. Wednesday afternoon the team traveled up the road to Brewster to take on the Whitecaps in Harwich's final regular season game and though Teehan did not start, he was in the pitching plans.

In the fifth inning, John, wearing #11 for Harwich, made his debut in front of nearly 1,000 fans, which included many of his family members. When he entered the game, Harwich trailed Brewster, 4-0.

The first three batters Teehan faced were in the middle of the order for the Whitecaps, the first of which was T.J. Collett from the University of Kentucky. In a five pitch at-bat, Teehan struck Collett out swinging. The next, and final, two batters of the inning from the University of Alabama and the University of Michigan, grounded out to third base and first base respectively. Teehan was out of his first inning in the Cape League with no damage done after just ten pitches.

The bottom of the sixth went just as well for John. He struck out the first hitter, Mason Dodd, for the first out of the inning. Got the next hitter to ground out to third and popped the next hitter up to end the inning.

When John took the mound in the bottom of the seventh the Mariner offense had given him some help, tying the game at 4-4. Much like the fifth and sixth innings, Teehan set the Whitecaps down in order, adding a third strike out to his pitching line.

In the eighth, with the score still tied at four apiece, the Whitecaps finally got to the Buccaneer. Collett, who he had struck out to begin the fifth inning, doubled. John then hit Tyler Gentry with a pitch. With runners on first and second base with no outs, Teehan fanned the fourth hitter of his outing. Then, he received help from his defense when Dodd grounded in to an inning ending, 4-6-3 double play, preserving the 4-4 score.

With four innings under John's belt, Harwich manager Steve Englert sent him back out to pitch the ninth inning. Due to a number of rain outs during the regular season, the Cape League announced last week that no game would go in to extra innings, allowing games to end in a tie. With the score still 4-4, John went back out on to the Stony Brook Field mound to preserve the tie for his team and, he delivered. A fly out, fifth strike out, and another fly out ended the game in a tie. Teehan had faced one more than the minimum amount of batters he could face in five innings and though he didn't earn a win he kept the team in the game.

The Mariners begin the playoffs on Friday evening. Who they will play is still to be determined but, if they go far enough we may see John pitch again in a Mariner uniform before the summer is out.