In today’s game, small ball has all but faded into the shadows—replaced by towering home runs and highlight-reel power swings. Especially in the college ranks, where metal bats and hitter-friendly environments inflate the numbers, the long ball reigns supreme. Contact and execution? Often overlooked in favor of exit velo and slugging percentage.

But the Cape League plays by different rules.

Here, metal bats give way to wood, and inflated stats crash back to earth. Pitching is sharper, the margin for error tighter. It’s a proving ground where the flash of power takes a backseat to the fundamentals. And sometimes, it’s not the guy with the moonshot swing who changes a game—it’s the one who does the little things right.

One of those guys for the Brewster Whitecaps is Adam Magpoc.

Home runs may not be his calling card, but stealing runs before you can blink? That’s exactly what he brings—and exactly what the ‘Caps have needed.

“I would love to be that power hitter that hits home runs just so I didn't have to run all the time,” Magpoc said. “But you play with the cards that you're dealt. So I think that aspect of my game is really important to have on pretty much any team.”

Magpoc has been on Brewster’s roster since Opening Day, but a logjam in the outfield—including his Boston College teammate Josiah Ragsdale, Blake Cyr (Florida), and Ty Head (NC State)—kept his opportunities limited. Still, head coach Jamie Shevchik made one thing clear: Magpoc’s time would come, if he was willing to wait for it.

“There’s a reason why he’s still here,” Shevchik explained. “I had that conversation with him—it feels like weeks ago at this point—where we could have let him go. He was a 10th player, and I asked him, I said, ‘Hey man, do you like it here?’ And he said, ‘Yeah, I love it here.’ I said, ‘You’ve got to be patient with me, let these guys cycle through the draft guys. And then once that happens, we’ll have an opportunity to get you out there and play.’”

That opportunity finally came on July 6th. With Ragsdale done for the summer and others like Cyr and Head gone, Magpoc stepped into the starting center field role. Hitting in the nine-hole against Hyannis, he debuted as a regular in Brewster’s reshaped outfield—a chance to finally find his rhythm.

“It’s been very reassuring,” Magpoc shared. “Getting one game every couple games here and there a week, it was hard to get going. But now that you have that kind of momentum, I think it’ll be much easier.”

The timing may not have seemed ideal—Brewster had dropped three of its last four and was coming off a blowout loss—but it marked a turning point. As the roster reshaped, Magpoc emerged as a spark, just when the Whitecaps needed it most.

In his first two games after the lineup shift, Adam Magpoc wasted no time making an impact—reaching base four times, drawing three walks, and scoring on three of those trips. The reason? Four stolen bases.

In Brewster’s 10–4 win over Hyannis, Magpoc manufactured a run all on his own: after walking to lead off a scoreless game, he stole second and third, then came home on an errant throw—before the batter at the plate even saw a fourth pitch. A literal and figurative one-man show.

The next day against Wareham, Magpoc shined again—this time in a tighter spot. While a blowout win over Hyannis may not turn heads, a two-run game in the ninth is a different story. With Brewster clinging to a 5-3 lead, Magpoc drew a walk, stole second and third, and scored on a groundout to extend the lead.

To some, it was just an insurance run. To Shevchik, it shifted the entire feel of the game—and set the tone for the games to come.

“That gave us a lot of comfort—that dictated everything that we were going to do with our pitchers,” Shevchik remarked. “If we went in with a two-run lead, we were a bloop and a bomb away from a tie, and we probably would have burned an arm. A lot of kids don’t understand how saving an arm is just as important as winning a baseball game or scoring a run… We had two guys down there that we almost burned bullets with, but the big run he got kind of solidified that.”

Fast forward to Wednesday’s game against Chatham, and the plan to save arms the night before paid off perfectly. Brewster’s four pitchers combined to allow just two hits and no earned runs, but the offense remained quiet—held hitless until the fifth inning. The usual hope for a big hit wasn’t cutting it this time.

Something had to change.

Cue Magpoc.

Magpoc laid down a perfect bunt down the first-base line—too quick for any infielder to reach. Suddenly, Brewster had a runner. After a flyout, Magpoc stole second and third—his third straight game doing it. Then, on the third pitch of Cal Fisher’s (Florida State) at-bat, a sharp single to center sent Magpoc sprinting home to give Brewster a crucial sixth-inning lead.

The run proved to be the game-winner, a watershed moment that eliminated any debate about his status on the team. It concluded a crucial three-game stretch in which Magpoc swiped six bases—each more important than the last.

That relentless threat on the basepaths has earned Magpoc the full green light. As Shevchik put it, they’re “better off not giving him anything and just letting him do his own thing on the base.”

But that green light only matters if he’s on base—and lately, that hasn’t been a problem. Over Brewster’s four-game win streak, Magpoc has posted a .538 on-base percentage, turning himself from a pinch-running specialist into a full-time lineup threat.

“I told you he can't steal first,” Shevchik said. “He's got to get there at some point. And once he does, he's electric.”

As long as that continues, more stolen bases for Magpoc are as good as stolen. With 13 swipes and only two times caught, his confidence is only growing. His total ranks third in the Cape—funny enough, one of the players ahead of him is now a former teammate in Ragsdale. With clear skies ahead, a run at the top spot (and bumping Ragsdale down in the process) wouldn’t be a bad summer goal.

“Josiah, his name on the top of these stat leaders has been really aching me out,” Magpoc joked. “So I’m just trying to push him down on the leaderboard.”

Title photo credit: Casey Bayne.