SOUTH YARMOUTH, Mass. — It was a bottom of the seventh inning that the Braves wanted to erase from their memory.

Bourne had a 4-1 lead and all the momentum between work on the base paths, extra-base hits, and the pitchers finding their rhythm, but the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox found life in the frame.

A pair of hits, a pair of walks, and a wild pitch helped Y-D tie the game at 4-4 after falling behind early in the contest. No side was able to get anything going in the eighth despite a furious attempt from Y-D that had pinch-runner Brayden Dowd (USC) reach third with zero outs. Derrick Smith (NC State) battled back after a rough seventh and dialed up three straight outs, leaving Dowd stranded at third.

Due to there being zero lights at Red Wilson Field, Game 3 of the season resulted in a 4-4 tie after eight innings of play.

“[Smith] battled through it, obviously he expects more, but he did what we needed to keep us in the game,” pitching coach Kevin Curtin said.

The Sox struck first in the bottom of the fourth as Garrett Wright (Bowling Green) got the momentum going after he was hit by a pitch. A wild pitch and a single by Avery Ortiz (Oklahoma State) later led to Wright cashing in on an RBI sacrifice fly by Alex Hernandez (Georgia Tech) to take the 1-0 lead.

“Three out of their four runs were on freebies,” field manager Scott Landers said. “That can't happen. We preached it for the first three games, and that's what really kind of killed us.”

In the top of the fifth, Kade Lewis (Wake Forest) stood in the on-deck spot and frantically tried to get the attention of Jon LeGrande (St. John’s). As the pitch clock wound down, LeGrande wasn’t paying attention in the batter’s box, but he finally heard the cry from Lewis and called a timeout.

It was a pause in the action that the Braves needed, as the bats came alive right after. The one-run lead for Y-D didn’t last long, as the Braves put together a furious rally. Weber Neels (Minnesota) extended his hitting streak to three games with a leadoff single. An errant pickoff attempt and wild pitch by Micheal Catalano (Oklahoma) helped Neels take third base.

Following a walk by Ryker Waite (Vanderbilt), he immediately took off and attempted to steal second, doing so successfully.

Yarmouth-Dennis forgot about Neels, as he took home base with ease to get the Braves on the board. A throwing error by catcher Nolan Traeger (TCU) on a back-pick attempt had Waite take third. He then would later touch home following an RBI double by Lewis. The two-base knocks continued with a rip to right field by Brayden Holcomb (Vanderbilt), giving Lewis a trip back to the dugout and Bourne the 3-1 lead.

Bourne created a cushion in the top of the seventh. Waite led off the frame with a double before coming around to score on LeGrande's extra-base hit, increasing the lead to 4-1 after the double.

An Ortiz double, a Hernandez walk, a Cider Canon (Davidson) walk, and a wild pitch from Smith started the late push as Ortiz scored. A blast from Cody Miller (East Tennessee State) resulted in a two-run double that scored Hernandez and Canon, which tied the game at 4-4 in the eighth.

“Kiss your sister and just go on from there,” Landers said. “We showed up today and had a tie. Got to show back up tomorrow and hopefully get a win.”

Bourne Braves Player of the Game

Starting pitcher Joey Colucci (Virginia) was efficient in his Bourne debut, tossing four innings and giving up just one run.

Key moment

The pitching from Derrick Smith in the eighth was the difference between the game turning from a tie to a loss. Despite giving up the lead, he battled back after letting a runner on third with zero outs, and escaped the inning with no runs to show for it.

A look ahead

The Braves (1-1-1, 3 points) will have their second consecutive road tilt, as Landers’ bunch will travel to Brewster (3-0-0, 6 points). The Whitecaps are the league’s lone undefeated squad and are coming off a 3-2 win over the Hyannis Harbor Hawks on Monday.

First pitch at Stony Brook Field is scheduled for 5 p.m.

Follow Lyle on X, @lalenstein. Feature photo by Shannen Hardy. Follow her on Instagram, @shannenhardy_media.