HARWICH, Mass. — The Brewster Whitecaps were down to their final out of the regular season and trailing the Harwich Mariners by a run. Still, with runners on the corners, they had a chance to extend the game.

It was up to Whitecaps shortstop Conner Cunningham (Murray State), who provided the team with its first baserunner when he was hit by a pitch in the third inning, to keep the game alive.

Cunningham swung hard at the first pitch he saw, but he sent it on the ground toward Mariners first baseman Quinton Coats (Cincinnati), who scooped it up and took it to the bag himself.

When Coats' cleat made contact with the base and umpire Rick Force raised his right arm to call out Cunningham, Brewster’s (25-12-3) 2-1 loss in a predetermined seven-inning affair to Harwich (21-19) entered the recordbook, and the immediate future of both teams became set in stone. The Whitecaps were already locked into the No. 2 seed in the East Division, but Harwich clinched the No. 3 seed with its win, meaning the two teams will meet up once again in the first round of the playoffs.

Brewster will look to forget the memory of Sunday evening at Whitehouse Field before hosting game one on Tuesday.

“The message was already said before today’s game, (have) a very short memory,” Whitecaps manager Jamie Shevchik said. “This is a brand new season, everything goes out the window right now. Stats are done, record is done, now you just play until you lose two games.”

Brewster didn’t necessarily put its best foot forward on Sunday, with a lineup deprived of regulars such as catcher Jacob Lee (Virginia Commonwealth) and first baseman Dane Harvey (Ohio State). Right-handed starter Otto Espinoza (Florida State) was also on a 35-pitch maximum with the postseason around the corner, limiting him to just one inning of work.

The Whitecaps were very much still trying to beat the Mariners, but entering the playoffs with a healthy roster, free of overexerted players, was also a goal.

“Your job is to win,” Shevchik said. “But the most important thing was to rest some arms, give guys some work that we pitched today, and wherever we ended up, whoever we ended up playing after this wasn’t going to make any difference to me.”

Without its star players, Brewster found itself being no-hit through 5.2 innings by Harwich right-handed starter Jason Finkelstein from Division III Babson College. Finkelstein entered with a 9.00 ERA across five innings entering the matchup, but four strikeouts and a boatload of weak contact kept him near-perfect when center fielder Hunter Kingsbury (Bryant) stepped into the left-handed batter's box for his third at-bat.

With his back against the wall, in an 0-2 count, Kingsbury, who only joined the roster Saturday, went the other way, roping a double down the left field line for his team’s first hit.

“It was in the back of my mind, but I try not to think about that too much,” Kingsbury said. “I try to just slow down the game, take what was given to me, and when I saw that pitch, I just let it go.”

His new teammates couldn’t bring him home, but the offensive production continued in the seventh inning against the Mariners bullpen.

Catcher Matthew Cash (Jacksonville State), who was making his Whitecaps debut, kickstarted a small rally with a single into center field. A walk and another single later, and the Whitecaps were threatening.

“Everyone was fired up,” Kingsbury said. “It kind of felt like a little playoff atmosphere quick at the end. We got a fiery group and a group that backs each other up.”

First baseman Eddie Yamin (Louisiana State) drove in the Whitecaps' first run of the game on a fielder’s choice, but also recorded the first of three straight outs to end the game.

Brewster’s performance wasn’t all bad, though, as the bullpen delivered five shutout innings after Espinoza ran into trouble in the first inning, giving up two runs on a hit and two walks. Left-hander Reese Young (North Alabama) led the way for the relievers, tossing three innings of one-hit ball, striking out two along the way.

“These last couple games are also tryout games,” Shevchik said. “They're opportunities to show where we can put these pieces into what situations throughout the next couple games. Reese going out there and pitching really well, I feel really confident about being able to use him in the playoffs somewhere.”

If that somewhere ends up being in the first round, it’ll once again be against the Mariners. If the Whitecaps had won Sunday, they’d have been penciled to go against the Chatham Anglers, as Harwich, without gaining two points, would’ve been behind them in the standings.

The Anglers, who are now the fourth seed and will face the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox in round one, might, on paper, seem like an easier matchup with their barely above .500 19-18-3 record; however, the team has won eight of its last nine games and went 2-2-1 against Brewster this season.

The Mariners, on the other hand, are 4-9 over their last 13 games and haven’t scored more than two runs against the Whitecaps in five meetings this summer, getting shut out twice as they lost the season series 3-2.

Shevchik, despite all the numbers, didn’t have a preference between the two teams.

“At some point, you've got to beat the best teams, whoever that best team is going to be,” he said. “If Chatham’s the best team that’s playing the best baseball right now, then you’re going to have to play them in round two anyway.”

As for Brewster, it’s entering the postseason off a loss that Shevchik described as “psychologically” bad, capping off a 1-4 stretch to end the season. Before this week, the Whitecaps hadn’t had more than three losses in a five-game span.

Brewster is playing some of its worst baseball of the summer at exactly the wrong time, but Shevchik isn’t ready to give up on the squad that clinched a playoff berth quicker than any team in his 12 years at the helm.

“We're limping into the playoffs right now,” Shevchik admitted. “You just got to get hot over the next week. We’re very well capable of doing that; let’s not forget that the same team just won six out of seven games a week ago. That’s the team that we need back, and if we can get that team back, we can make a run.”