BREWSTER, Mass. — After being tied through nine innings, Cotuit took the field with a crucial one-run lead in the 10th and only one extra inning of play. Brewster’s three-hole hitter and Cape Cod Baseball League home run leader, Jacob Lee, stepped up with the automatic runner at second base. One swing of the bat could mean pandemonium at Stony Brook, and the whole stadium knew it.
In the half-inning prior, the Kettleers (4-6-2) bunted over and scored their automatic runner from second, opting for the lead rather than a crooked number. As Lee (Virginia Commonwealth) took his first swing at an 0-1 pitch, it was clear Brewster (6-5-1) was hunting anything but a tie. The Whitecaps were going for the win.
Lee struck out, and Dane Harvey grounded out to the right side. Two outs rolled by, and Jamie Laskofski (UNC) had only moved 90 feet to third base. Cotuit needed one more out to leave Stony Brook with a road win, but Brewster needs one barrel to make the gamble worth it.
With the last out in his hands, three-year CCBL player Eddie Yamin IV doubled into straightaway left-center field, tying the game and thrusting Brewster out of a potentially devastating loss.
“I thought it was gone,” Yamin said. “I don’t know how much harder I could have hit it, to be honest with you.”
Just tens of feet short of a walk-off blast, the Louisiana State catcher took a proactive approach to his late-game at-bat. Knowing Cotuit’s reliever leaned on the sinker, Yamin refused to be beaten down in the zone. After spending parts of the afternoon behind fastballs, the West Sands Lake, New York, native did not let one empty line in the box score travel with him into the biggest spot of the night.
“The other day I was a little late on fastballs [and] early on in this game, I was a little late on [fastballs,] but I wasn’t going to really carry that into the next to bat,” Yamin said. “You don’t rise to the occasion, you sink to your preparation, and, I mean, I kind of just sank to my preparation at that moment.”
The extra-base hit ended an 0-for-3 day for Yamin, bailing out the Whitecaps and their coaching staff. The bottom of the 10th inning held Brewster's momentum in its hands. The run that tied the game was paramount for more than just avoiding a loss.
“The whole world was probably saying, you know, why aren’t we bunting [with a runner on second and no outs] and moving the runner to third base,” manager Jamie Shevchik said. “We gambled and, you know, you want to play for the win at home. You know, maybe to tie on the road, and Eddie [Yamin] bailed me out. But, yeah, after losing it, like, we did yesterday. The next best thing, you know, away from winning a game today was a tie.”
The choice fit the inning. Cotuit played the one run it needed. Brewster played for the swing that could send everyone home. That type of confidence in the lineup may inevitably jumpstart this offense into a high-caliber unit, the likes of which fans have only seen glimpses of.
Playing for the win with an aggressive mindset and a preparation-focused approach has the potential to turn around the bottom-five CCBL offense.
"I need our starting pitchers to go five, six innings, right?" Shevchik said. "We're in a six-game stretch, and, you know, if [Mavrick Rizy] is going to run his pitch count up to 75 pitches through three innings, then we're going to tax our bullpen."
Rizy (Louisiana State) did not give Brewster the length it needed, though it put the Whitecaps in a position for potential success. Still, the Whitecaps found a way to keep the night alive against a Western Division opponent.
A tie doesn't erase the sting of leaving the winning run on base. It doesn't clean up every empty at-bat or make a six-game stretch of play feel lighter. But after Cotuit took the lead in the 10th and Brewster stared at another late loss, Yamin’s swing kept the Whitecaps from walking off their own field empty-handed.
The Whitecaps play at Falmouth at 6 p.m. Sunday. Watch the Whitecaps broadcast on Cape League TV or follow the game on Instagram (@brewsterwhitecaps) or X (@BrewsterCaps).
Matt Ford-Wellman can be reached at mfordwellman.media@gmail.com or on X @MattFW_4.
