BREWSTER, Mass. — “Winning is a great deodorant,” assistant coach John Schiffner said after yet another Brewster Whitecaps victory. While the second-place squad in the East defeated the Cotuit Kettleers 6-0 without a hitch, the game still had its moments of pressure.

It wouldn’t be a Whitecaps (17-7-2) ballgame without some tight spots, and with 200 career Cape Cod Baseball League wins, manager Jamie Shevchik knows a thing or two about what gets a team a W. On a night when the sky turned yellow with smoke and the baseball looked smaller than ever against the eerie backdrop, experience on the Cape took the cake.

In his seventh CCBL game, Charlie Willcox did exactly what Shevchik needed. He limited the stress on the bullpen while tossing five straight zeros on the scoreboard, but in a very different manner than Sebastian Santos-Olson did the night before.

“When you self-implode your innings and you self-destruct, that’s the big problem,” Shevchik said. “Guys are going to get hits but yesterday, we just did a really good job minimizing the damage. Today, [Willcox] put himself in a spot where he could have gotten hurt, but it was very, very limited.”

The Georgia Tech right-hander struck out five and allowed only two hits. The “self-destruction” came in the form of free bases, mainly the three walks Willcox allowed. Thankfully for the Florida native, he had VCU catcher Jacob Lee behind the plate, foiling three separate 90-foot heists.

The first monumental throwdown to second came two batters into the game. Willcox walked the second hitter he saw, opening the door for the game’s first run. Without skipping a beat, Lee clocked the runner taking off, put the ball in the tag zone, and eliminated the threat. The No. 3 hitter struck out, and off the Whitecaps went scot-free.

Lee added his second caught stealing as Brewster went to the bullpen. With two runners on, Cotuit needed both to score to tie the ballgame. The Kettleers took the risk and tried for third, but Lee gunned the runner down, erasing the error and getting his team out of the inning.

“It is phenomenal,” Schiffner said. “[Lee] is one of the hardest workers, and I mean those [throws] are spectacular. I mean, they were right on the bag… That is what you need. That shuts down the running game real fast.”

Without Lee’s cannon of an arm, Cotuit may have slipped into the contest and pushed the decision into the later innings, potentially forcing a tie due to darkness. A couple of key plays were all that really mattered for the Whitecaps, both offensively and defensively.

“I don’t need 3-for-4 days,” said Shevchik. “I will take 1-for-4 days but with runners in scoring position.”

Until the seventh and final inning of play, Brewster held on to a tight 2-0 lead. Before the unnecessary four-run final inning, the Whitecaps had left just four runners on base and hit .333 with runners in scoring position, a clip that would clobber any team that walks eight batters.

Lee checked all those boxes, knocking a crucial base hit into left to score the first run of the game and walking twice to put pressure back on the Kettleers (9-15-2).

“On the hardest day to see of the year, I got two walks,” Jacob Lee said with a grin after his first two-walk game of the season.

When a team like Cotuit can’t attack the strike zone, the running game opens up and chaos ensues. Lee’s patience on the four-pitch freebies created opportunities for his teammates, just as his RBI single did in the second inning.

“I saw something I could hit and I happened to hit it through the hole… but yeah so no hit and run there, just having a fast guy on first and trusting him to get over,” Lee said.

The first-and-third situation returned after William & Mary shortstop Jamie Latskofski went from first to third on Lee’s single. A passed ball scored the speedy shortstop, essentially making Lee’s hit a 2-for-1 deal.

While the top half of the lineup thrived, the bottom struggled in the spotlight. Eddie Yamin IV went 0-for-2 with runners in scoring position, leaving five total base runners stranded with two outs. The Whitecaps can’t expect perfection from their top performers, making their baserunning and defense that much more important.

Shevchik said postgame that he does not think the team is “chasing Y-D.” Recent trends suggest a different angle: The Red Sox may soon be the team looking over its shoulder as Brewster tightens the gap in the standings day by day.

The Whitecaps play at Hyannis at 6:30 p.m. Thursday. Watch the Whitecaps broadcast on Cape League TV or follow the game on Instagram (@brewsterwhitecaps) or X (@BrewsterCaps).

Matt Ford-Wellman can be reached at mfordwellman.media@gmail.com or on X at @MattFW_4.