BREWSTER Mass. — In a Cape Cod Baseball League season defined by imbalance, the East Division has firmly taken the crown. The three best records in the league all belong to East teams, and even fourth-place Orleans would be tied for first if they played in the West. The divide has been stark — and frustrating — for teams like the Brewster Whitecaps, who’ve stacked together impressive winning streaks but remain locked in a playoff fight simply because of the competition around them.

Brewster opened the summer with six straight wins, ripped off five more at midseason, and yet still couldn't separate from the pack. Every time the Whitecaps gained ground, another East rival answered. Against their own division, Brewster is just 4-7-1 — beaten back time and time again.

But on Tuesday, they got a break from that grind — and returned to more comfortable footing.

The matchup brought Brewster up against another West Division foe — an area where they’ve found steady success. Entering at 14-8 against the West, undefeated vs. Falmouth and Hyannis, and still riding momentum from a 14-0 blowout of Bourne earlier this summer, the Whitecaps had reason to feel confident. This was a rematch — and a shot at redemption — after Bourne handed them their last West loss. This time, Brewster flipped the script. Duncan Marsten (Wake Forest) delivered his longest, most dominant outing of the summer, pitching into the seventh with just two runs allowed. Ryan Martin (Dallas Baptist) erased an early deficit with a booming two-run homer, and Cal Fisher (Florida State) added a clutch two-run single that put Brewster (19-15-1) ahead for good in a gritty 4-2 win over Bourne (16-17-2).

“Today was just a really good pitched game,” head coach Jamie Shevchik said. “And we did just enough to win, right? You have to win games like this, and you’ve got to win the games when your pitching doesn't show up.”

For Marsten, it marked the latest — and strongest — step forward in his transition to a starting role. After appearing in just eight games out of the bullpen at Wake Forest last spring — and opening his Cape stint with three relief outings — he’s gradually stretched out. With Tuesday marking his fifth start, he’s emerged as a key answer for a team suddenly short on traditional rotation arms.

“Duncan was unbelievable,” Shevchik said. “Little by little — I know I keep saying this — his outings haven't been great, but he's been gaining confidence every time he steps out there. And today was kind of the end result of the entire summer.”

That confidence wasn’t automatic. After a quiet first inning from both teams, the second brought the first real test. Cal Sefcik (Cincinnati) doubled to right with one out, and after a groundout pushed him to third, Gavin Kelly (West Virginia) made Marsten pay. Behind 2-1 in the count, Marsten challenged him — and Kelly launched a two-run homer to right.

It looked like the game might tip right there. But Marsten dug in — and Brewster responded.

Not with patience, but with power.

Carson Kerce (Georgia Tech) led off the bottom of the second with a single, and that brought up Ryan Martin — who had been waiting for this matchup.

After Saturday’s win over Cotuit, Shevchik had mentioned Martin’s limited role due to tough platoon splits. “I feel bad for him,” Shevchik said. “We’re not facing any left-handed starters. He’s hitting .370 against lefties and .110 against righties.”

Tuesday finally brought a lefty. And Martin made it count.

“As soon as we saw there was a left-handed pitcher, it was the right time to get him in,” Shevchik said. Martin quickly fell behind 0-2 — but got a fastball up in the zone. He didn’t miss. A no-doubt, two-run homer to right tied the game at 2-2 and swung the momentum in Brewster’s favor.

From there, Marsten settled in. After allowing two hits and two runs in the second, he didn’t surrender another hit until the one that ended his outing in the seventh. Over six-plus innings, he walked just two — filling up the zone, mixing speeds and keeping Bourne guessing.

“I know my previous outings haven’t gone past four innings,” Marsten said. “So I'm just trying to go up there and throw strikes and do the best I can to help the team to get a win.”

His command gave Brewster exactly what it needed: a chance to stay close and wait for a crack. Eventually, it found it.

Bourne’s starter, Matthew Shorey (Vanderbilt), was brilliant after the second-inning blast, allowing just one more hit through six. But in the seventh, Brewster finally broke through again — this time against the bullpen.

Dalton Wentz (Wake Forest) led off with a walk, and Martin was hit by a pitch. A double steal moved both into scoring position. With the infield in, Cal Fisher — who entered the game with almost as many RBIs as hits — came through once more, dropping a flare into shallow center to score both runners and give Brewster the lead.

“We did just enough. We played situational baseball,” Shevchik said. “Think about the double steal to get runners to second or third — if the infield is not in, in that scenario, that's just a routine ground ball to shortstop. So we created that opportunity. We created that run.”

The bullpen did the rest. Kyle Kipp (Boston College) continued his dominance, tossing a perfect eighth to preserve his 0.00 ERA across 15 1/3 innings this summer. Landon O’Donnell (State College of Florida) slammed the door in the ninth. Bourne managed just two hits after the second inning.

Now, with the end of the regular season near, Brewster’s comfort zone — games against the West — is nearly behind it. Just one of its final five matchups comes against a West team. The rest? All East. And so will the playoffs.

That means something will have to shift if Brewster wants to finish strong.

“With four games against our division,” Shevchik said, “playoff ramifications and foreshadowing of somebody who you're going to play. They have to compete in those games … to have some confidence going in, knowing that we can kind of run our division if we get a chance to get in there.”

Title photo credit: Casey Bayne.