BREWSTER, Mass. — One year ago, Brewster’s season ended in collapse — a 1-8 finish, a 17-day winless streak and a brutal minus-54 run differential that left the Whitecaps well short of the playoffs in a summer where nothing seemed to go right. Fast forward to 2025, and it’s been a story of redemption. Under head coach Jamie Shevchik, Brewster flipped the script, riding a historic start and consistent success to put itself back in the playoff hunt.

And now, that redemption arc is complete: the Brewster Whitecaps are playoff-bound.

Of course, they didn’t make it easy.

Brewster entered Wednesday’s matchup in Chatham with a chance to punch its ticket early, needing just one win to officially clinch. It was set up perfectly — one more win to cap a dramatic turnaround.

But in true Brewster fashion, they kept things interesting. A 10-0 blowout loss was their way of saying: “Not tonight.”

"The way this team has been playing all year long, there’s no way that we had an opportunity to clinch and we would actually do it,” Shevchik said postgame Wednesday. “No shot.”

Still, Brewster wasn’t done. A shot at redemption remained — just with a little help. All they needed was a bounce-back win over first-place Wareham and a loss or tie from Chatham to clinch a postseason spot. And while Shevchik admitted Wednesday’s blowout was a missed chance to control their own fate, it was clear from the first pitch on Thursday: Brewster wasn’t going to waste a second opportunity. The offense struck early, scoring seven runs in the first four innings, while Spencer Seid (Georgetown), Nathan Brittain (Duke) and Jack DeTienne (Xavier) combined for nine steady innings in a 7-1 win over Wareham (19-18). With Chatham falling to Falmouth, the result was sealed. Brewster (20-16-1) is officially playoff-bound — a major step forward in a redemption story still being written.

“This is a scary team,” Shevchik said. “Coach Mike (Mobbs) over there said, ‘Man, you guys are probably the scariest team we’ve seen.’ And it’s scary for me, because I just came off a 10-0 loss and then I watched a 7-1 game, a 9-1 game the other day. So the inconsistency is what scares me a little bit. But man, this team has the makings of potentially doing something. They don’t need to get hot — they just need to stay consistent.”

When Brewster has been at its best this season, it’s been behind quality — sometimes dominant — starting pitching. In a league where runs are hard to come by, jumping on a team early can shift the entire tone of a game, sucking the life out of a dugout before it ever settles in. Brewster felt that firsthand in Wednesday’s blowout loss to Chatham — and on Thursday, they flipped the script.

After a scoreless first, Maddox Mihalakis (Arizona) led off the second. Just a week ago, Shevchik pointed to Mihalakis as a player who needed to get hot if Brewster was going to make a serious push — reminding that a slow start didn’t mean the breakout wasn’t coming. On Thursday, it arrived. Mihalakis jumped on the first pitch he saw — a middle-middle changeup — and crushed it out to right for a solo homer, opening the scoring in emphatic fashion.

“If you just pay attention to him hitting and don’t really think about his stats, he’s hitting about .600 because he’s been barreling baseballs,” Shevchik said. “And then you look at the stat sheet — it says .250. But again, this is what we expected from him. This is what we saw, even the balls that were caught. I think he’s a really good hitter, yeah — and they just happened to fall today.”

The momentum rolled into the third. After Adam Magpoc (San Diego State) walked and stole second, Brendan Lawson (Florida) did what he’s done all summer — lined a two-out RBI single to double the lead. Lawson, who finished with three hits, bumped his average to a blistering .347. Brewster kept the pressure on. Mihalakis followed with a single up the middle, then Carson Kerce (Georgia Tech) added a third straight two-out RBI knock to make it 4-0.

Late in the Cape season, with pitching depth stretched thin, four runs doesn’t always seal it. Brewster went hunting for the knockout — and landed it in the fourth. After two walks and a fielder’s choice, a throwing error brought home another run. With an open base, Magpoc swiped second for his 26th steal, tying Nick Dumesnil’s single-season franchise record and taking over the Cape lead. Dalton Wentz (Wake Forest) ripped an RBI single to left, Mihalakis added his second RBI of the night with another single, and just like that, Brewster was up seven.

On the other side of the ball, Seid was thriving with the early run support, delivering his best start as a Whitecap. He blanked the Gatemen through three, working around a double in the first, picking off a runner in the second and cruising through a one-two-three third with two strikeouts.

Wareham threatened in the fourth with a walk and a double to put two in scoring position, and a sacrifice fly cut into the lead — but even with a six-run cushion, that was enough for Shevchik to turn to the bullpen. Seid, ever the competitor, didn’t want to come out, but he had done his job and then some — putting Brewster in full control.

“I wanted to get him through four innings today,” Shevchik said. “I know he was really pissed off — rightfully so — but I just felt like the decision we had to make today was: Do we go all in on trying to win this game, or save Brittain for an emergency start in the next two days? And I just felt like, when he went out there for the fourth inning — four-pitch walk, barrel, barrel — that could have spun into something bad.”

From there, it was all zeros. Brittain came in for Seid, fresh off his 4 1/3-inning, one-hit relief outing against Harwich, and delivered again — tossing 2 2/3 scoreless innings and escaping trouble in both the fifth and, more critically, the sixth, where he stranded the bases loaded.

DeTienne followed and closed it out with less drama, tossing three hitless innings with five strikeouts — including the final punch out that sealed both the win and Brewster’s playoff berth.

With the postseason now secured, Brewster can finally exhale.

There are no more must-win games — for now. A higher seed is still in play, but for Shevchik, the focus shifts to preparing his team for a playoff run.

“Probably. I mean, we still have a shot to win the division. Is it the priority for me? No,” Shevchik said. “There has to be a healthy combination right now of getting guys ready for the first round of the playoffs, still wanting to win and make a run by playing down, maybe get some guys some ABs. But the mentality shifts a little over these last couple games.”

Title photo credit: Casey Bayne