HARWICH, Mass. — Outmatched. Outclassed. Outplayed.

Three words that summed up Brewster’s playoff opener against Harwich.

It had been 732 days since the Whitecaps last tasted postseason baseball. After missing the playoffs in 2024, they finally returned—riding a rollercoaster season marked by wild highs and lows, capped by a dramatic walk-off win over Orleans, who entered on a seven-game tear. That moment injected hope and momentum heading into their first-round clash with Harwich.

But on paper, the matchup was lopsided.

Just three days earlier, Brewster had narrowly avoided being no-hit by the Mariners in a blowout loss—their third defeat to Harwich this season. To flip the script, they’d need to go through Harwich ace Tony Dressler (Wake Forest), who’d allowed just three runs over his last 17 innings. Brewster countered with another Demon Deacon, Duncan Marsten, fresh off his best start of the year.

What was billed as a duel between equals quickly turned lopsided. Dressler was nearly untouchable, striking out five of the first six batters and finishing with six punchouts. Marsten didn’t make it out of the third, tagged for five earned runs. Brewster looked overwhelmed and underprepared, as Harwich continued its dominance—this time when it mattered most. A five-run eighth sealed a 10–2 rout in Game 1.

From the outset, Brewster had no room for error. To match Dressler’s dominance, they’d need to start fast, settle in, and strike when the opportunity came.

They never got the chance.

In the top of the first, Brewster’s bats went down quietly—three up, three down, all via strikeout. By the time they came to bat again, they were already in a hole.

The ball was in Marsten’s hands, a nod to his late-season turnaround. After struggling to adjust from reliever to starter, he had finally found his rhythm against Bourne: six innings, three hits, two runs—his best outing of the summer.

But that version of Marsten never showed.

He looked sharp early, retiring the first two batters with ease. But an infield single off Colton Coates’s (LA Tech) glove extended the inning, and Matt Conte (Wake Forest) made it count with a double down the right field line. A walk followed, and Patrick Fultz (Wright State) delivered an RBI single to make it 2–0. Two runs—but more than enough for Dressler to work with.

Shevchik said postgame that first inning was a clear sign of what was to come.

“You saw today, two runs in the first inning,” Shevchik explained. “That’s kind of like I said — we go out there and strike out three times in the first, they put up two, right? Technically, the game is decided in the first inning. It kind of set the tone.”

Dressler added two more strikeouts in the second, while Marsten managed a clean inning of his own. But in the third, things unraveled again.

A walk and a single set the table, and a wild pitch moved both runners into scoring position. Marsten needed a break—any out to keep the game within reach—but Jake Coonin (Princeton) doubled to left, driving in two. 4–0, Harwich. That was enough for Shevchik, who turned to Zach Bates (Illinois) to stop the bleeding. Even so, Harwich tacked on another before the inning ended: 5–0.

“(Marsten) didn’t have his best stuff, he wasn’t sharp, he wasn’t locating,” Shevchik pointed out. “There wasn’t a lot of action on his baseball today, and he got hit right? He got hit around a little bit. It wasn’t his best outing.”

Bates did his job, settling the game with 2 2/3 innings of one-hit ball and four strikeouts, giving Brewster a sliver of hope—and in the fifth, a rally flickered.

Carson Kerce (Georgia Tech) was hit by a pitch, and back-to-back singles from Colton Coates and Jacob Jarrell (Clemson) loaded the bases. Adam Magpoc (San Diego State) stepped in, worked the count full, and chopped a ball up the middle. Harwich turned the force at second but couldn’t complete the double play, allowing a run to score—Brewster was finally on the board. Magpoc then stole second, putting two runners in scoring position, but Brendan Lawson (Florida) grounded out to end the inning—a momentum killer just as the Whitecaps looked poised to break through.

“We just didn't have good at-bats early on,” Shevchik stated. “We had opportunities to score runs and get back in the game. One hit in the fifth inning when we had the bases loaded puts us in reach. But we didn’t. It kind of burst our bubble a little bit and got us deflated.”

The fifth inning was enough to knock Dressler out of the game, but not to shift the momentum. Scott Doran (Coastal Carolina) took over and threw scoreless sixth and seventh innings. With each out, Brewster’s window narrowed.

In the eighth, they seemed to catch a break. Magpoc tripled on a misplayed ball in the outfield, and Lawson followed with an RBI single to cut the deficit to three. But a double play killed the inning—and likely Brewster’s last real chance at a comeback.

Harwich slammed the door in the bottom half.

Jack DeTienne (Xavier) took the mound for Brewster and couldn’t avoid barrels. A leadoff homer by Coonin sparked a late rally, followed by a single, a walk, and back-to-back RBI knocks. Even after Chris Knier (Florida State) came in, Harwich added a double and a groundout to stretch the lead to 10–2.

A lead more than comfortable with one inning to go, Harwich closed out Game One in dominant, emphatic fashion. Now, Brewster faces elimination Wednesday at Stony Brook Field.

The Whitecaps have spent all season responding to adversity—rallying, rebounding, refusing to fold. If they want to keep their season alive and claw back into this series, they'll have to do it on their biggest stage, against their toughest opponent yet.

“These are the hardest games to play and lose,” Shevchik reflected. “You lose Game One, you’re one loss away from getting out of here. You just have to hope at this point that these guys have some fire in them and some fight in them… Our goal is to come out tomorrow, forget about today, and play one game at a time. If you win tomorrow, we survive and play another day.”

Title photo credit: Kayla McCullough.