Brewster, Mass. — On Friday afternoon at Red Wilson Field in Yarmouth, the Whitecaps had the bats going en route to an 18-7 thumping of the Red Sox and an early 1-0 series lead. Brewster could have swept the Red Sox at home off another offensive showing the next day.
That offensive showing stayed hidden Saturday afternoon.
When all was said and done at Stony Brook Field, the Brewster Whitecaps (1-1) fell 3-1 to the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox (1-1) due to an abysmal day at the plate and a poor defensive showing with four errors in the field. Brewster’s offense did not just struggle, but they were no-hit through the first six innings of the ballgame by Finnegan Wall (UC Irvine).
“It’s baseball. One day you can be awesome, one day you can be really bad,” Whitecaps hitting coach Scott Grimes said. “It’s not the way you wanted to write it, that’s for sure.”
Wall was the talk of the town in the second game of the best-of-three series and provided exactly what his club was looking for facing elimination at Stony Brook Field. He gave up no runs, no hits and just three walks in six shutdown innings, along with five strikeouts.
“That was probably the best pitching performance that I’ve seen all summer,” Whitecaps manager Jamie Shevchik said. “He just threw enough strikes. He kept us off balance. We couldn’t get comfortable at the plate.”
After a scoreless first inning, the Red Sox took the lead in the second off Brewster righty Darien Smith (Southeastern). Zander Darby (UC Santa Barbara) reached base on an error, and William Gleed (UC Irvine) and Ryan Jackson (USC) walked to load the bases.
With two outs in the frame, Skylar King (West Virginia) came through for his club and hit a bunt single placed perfectly in between Smith and catcher Dylan Leach (Missouri State). Ultimately, Smith was able to work out of the jam with just one unearned run, but the Red Sox took an early 1-0 lead.
The Red Sox manufactured another run in the third as well. Brady Day (Kansas State) singled to lead off the frame and advanced to second on a wild pitch and to third on a passed ball. Darby knocked Day in on an RBI groundout to make it 2-0 Y-D.
In the fourth, Smith’s wildness came back to bite him again. Jackson blasted a double deep to center and eventually scored off Smith’s two wild pitches, which extended the Y-D lead to 3-0.
That was all either team would score until the seventh, and was all Smith gave up in his outing. In the end, Smith gave up two earned runs on five hits and two walks in 5.2 innings of work, alongside six punchouts.
“I felt pretty good, you know, I just tried to attack the zone to give our team a chance to win,” Smith said.
Although it did not translate into a victory, Shevchik was impressed by what he saw from his starter Saturday afternoon but was frustrated by Brewster’s defensive shortcomings.
“Darien was really good. We just made too many mistakes,” Shevchik said. “He really should have walked out of there theoretically with one run and only one run, so we didn’t help him out. We spoiled a really good pitching performance.”
The Whitecaps avoided a shutout with a run in the seventh, but failed to muster a rally. Mason White (Arizona) hit a bloop single, which scored Davis Diaz (Vanderbilt), who reached base earlier that inning on a fielder’s choice.
That was it for offense, however.
Rocco Reid (Clemson) shut down the Red Sox offense and allowed just one baserunner in three innings of work out of the bullpen. Reid got into trouble in the eighth with a runner on third and just one out, but his defense gave him a king-sized assist to get him out of the jam. Third baseman Tyler Pettorini (Ohio State) fielded the ball and darted it home to Leach, who slapped the tag on Braden Montgomery (Stanford).
Southpaw Boston Mabeus (Brigham Young) matched Reid out of the Red Sox bullpen and gave up just one run on two hits in three innings of work. Mabeus retired the final seven batters faced, alongside four punchouts of his own.
After a disappointing result at Stony Brook Field, the Whitecaps look to revert to their offensive output from the night before facing elimination in the final contest of the first round of the Cape League playoffs Sunday afternoon at 4 p.m. back at Red Wilson Field in Yarmouth.
