FALMOUTH, Mass. — When the Brewster Whitecaps lose in embarrassing fashion, their postgame meetings tend to be pretty brief. In fact, manager Jamie Shevchik doesn’t usually say anything. From his experience, he knows it’s better to wait until the next day to address the team rather than accidentally say something you don’t mean in the heat of the moment.

But following the Whitecaps' uninspired 9-3 home loss to Y-D Thursday, Shevchik didn’t hold back. He kept his players in a postgame huddle that lasted nearly five minutes. For the first time this season, they had looked like a team that simply didn’t want to be there. And this late in the season, especially in the heat of a playoff push, nothing ticks off a head coach more than when that kind of mentality starts to take hold.

“I told them not to cheat themselves. The people of Brewster don’t deserve it, the coaching staff doesn’t deserve it, and neither do the guys who do give a s**t,” Shevchik said after the loss to the Red Sox. “We’re in a tight race right now, and we’re letting it slip away. (The players) are the only ones who can stop it.”

Fortunately for the 'Caps, they were given a prime chance to do so the following day. It seems every time Brewster reaches a new low point in 2025, the baseball gods grace it with a favorable matchup hours later when it needs it most. That trend continued Friday, as it was handed a matchup against a struggling Falmouth team — one of two who had yet to defeat it in 2025. At Guv Fuller Field for the first time since Game Two of the campaign, a dramatic two-run comeback victory for the Whitecaps, they came home with a similar result.

Never trailing once the entire game, Brewster (17-14-1) clinched its second season series sweep of 2025 with a 5-2 victory over the Commodores (13-18-1). Scott Newman (Georgia) enjoyed a breakout performance for the ‘Caps, logging a game-high two RBIs after putting up just one in his past nine outings. After building a 5-0 edge through six innings, Brewster received a late scare from Falmouth as it plated two unearned runs in the bottom of the seventh, but that was all it could muster.

“I know people are scoreboard watching right now, and the only thing that matters is Chatham has to keep losing and we have to win a handful of games,” Shevchik said. “I don’t care where we finish (in the division), one, two, three or four, we have to figure out a way to get into the playoffs somehow.”

Entering Friday night’s matchup, the ‘Caps had dropped six of their last eight contests and now sat all the way back in third place in the East. The recent slump couldn’t have come at a worse time for Brewster, as other Eastern foes like the Red Sox, Mariners and Firebirds have suddenly heated up at the same time and gained ground in the standings. With just three points separating the top four spots in the division ahead of Friday’s games, the ‘Caps needed to get their wind back — and fast.

If Brewster was going to return to the win column, it needed a strong performance from its starting pitcher. Across its last four games in particular, its opening arms have been very hit or miss, allowing nine earned runs during the span. The Whitecaps looked to Spencer Seid (Georgetown) to right the ship. In the first 3 ⅓ frames, he delivered a shutout start on the mound, but it wasn’t easy.

After sending the top of Falmouth's lineup down in order in the first, Seid allowed two runners to move into scoring position in each of the next couple frames, making the ‘Caps' dugout hold its collective breath as he escaped each one.

With a pair of runners again poised to score in the fourth, Shevchik didn’t push Seid’s luck. He replaced him with Jack DiTienne (Xavier) midway into the frame, who picked up right where Seid left off by escaping the jam. Because of the duo’s efforts, the Commodores were held to an 0-for-6 mark with men in scoring position through the first four frames and ultimately finished the evening 1-for-12.

Although it was faced with a much more beatable pitcher than the day prior versus Y-D, Brewster’s offense was again held silent in the early going. Its lone spark in the first few frames came from Brody DeLamielleure’s (Florida State) single in the first, but otherwise it failed to make much solid contact off Laif Palmer’s (Oregon State) offerings. The knock marked DeLamielleure’s third in as many games as a Whitecap.

“No, not really,” Shevchik said when asked if he expected DeLamielleure to make an impact so soon. “You don’t know what to expect when you’re bringing in somebody with 13 games to go, but I did know we needed a little bit of a kickstart in our lineup.”

Since falling into a brief lapse in late June that saw Brewster stumble into seven errors across two games, it’s been for the most part error-free. But lately, its defensive blunders have started to come back to the surface. The ‘Caps’ entered Friday’s bout with five errors in their past eighteen innings, and added three more against the Commodores.

This time, however, their opponents’ mistakes proved to be much more costly.

The fifth inning couldn’t have opened worse for the ‘Dores. With a reliever now on the bump, he opened his night with a hit-by-pitch. Four pitches later, Adam Magpoc (San Diego State) made him pay with an RBI double into deep center field to break the ice. Then, a fielder’s choice combined with an interference call on Falmouth’s third basemen suddenly placed runners at the corners for the Whitecaps. To put the cherry on top of a completely disorganized inning, Magpoc even scored thanks to a balk.

Knowing Falmouth’s arm was fully rattled, the ‘Caps showed no hesitation to keep swinging. Carson Kerce (Georgia Tech) and Jacob Jarrell (Clemson) put up back-to-back base hits before Brewster boosted its advantage to four via Newman’s two-run RBI double in the sixth. Another awkward Falmouth error allowed the Whitecaps to stretch the lead up to five by the end of the half-inning.

“We don’t win this game if they don’t make errors. They made a couple errors that gave us an opportunity,” Shevchik said. “I think our lineup is going to be competitive against everybody, it just comes down to who’s going to make those costly mistakes every day.”

Completely in control now, Brewster opted to lean on its litany of relievers down the stretch. Following DiTienne’s scoreless fifth, Mitch Dye (Xavier) took over for the next two frames before passing off the rock to Kyle Kipp (Boston College) and Landon O’Donnell (State College of Florida) to shut the door. Despite a small two-run burst from Falmouth in the seventh, the Whitecaps' bullpen ended the day with just two hits, two walks and served up nine strikeouts combined.

While the victory may not have been a pretty one, Brewster will take wins any way it can get them at this point in the season as it continues to vie for a playoff spot within a tightly contested East Division.

“We just want a chance. The job of the bullpen is not to come down and throw up zeroes all the time, it’s to just give us an opportunity to win. Offensively, we did just enough to win today,” Shevchik said.

Title photo credit: Kayla McCullough.