BREWSTER, Mass. — On Opening Night, the Brewster Whitecaps scored two runs in the ninth inning to emerge victorious. On June 29, Brewster scored four in the final frame to walk it off. Then the next day, June 30, a nine-run seventh inning shot the Whitecaps onward to victory.

Late comebacks have been the name of the game for the Whitecaps in 2026, but on a day early in July, the team bucked the trend.

Brewster (12-6-1) responded to early adversity, as for just the second time all season, the team evened proceedings in the bottom of the first inning after falling behind. Then, in the second, a triple off the bat of left fielder Jay Abernathy (Oklahoma) gave the Whitecaps a Sunday evening lead over the Hyannis Harbor Hawks (8-11). It was a lead they never looked back from, walking out of Stony Brook Field with a 6-3 win.

“(We) jumped in with two runs right in the first inning,” Whitecaps manager Jamie Shevchik said. “We scored in multiple innings throughout the game. I really love that there wasn’t a really big inning today. They just scratched and clawed and put one run a couple times. … I want to see these guys being able to manufacture runs multiple times throughout the day. They did a really good job of that.”

Before the triumph, however, there was the early collapse.

Right-handed starter Mavrick Rizy (Ole Miss) toed the rubber for his fourth outing of the summer, sporting an 8.4 walks per nine rate that didn’t exactly improve.

Rizy hit the Harbor Hawks leadoff man, left fielder Liam Barrett (UCSB), on the third pitch of the game, leading to the inning snowballing on the Whitecaps righty. Another hit-by-pitch and two walks created two free runs for a Hyannis team that didn’t record a hit until the sixth inning.

To his credit, Rizy didn’t let the rough first bleed into the rest of his start.

“First batter, obviously hit him, and I think I just lost track of my breathing,” Rizy said. “I was happy to get through that first, minimize a little bit there. … All you can control is the stuff that’s going to happen in the future, so I think that’s what got me back on track.”

The 6-foot-9 righty cruised through his final two frames, pitching “a little angry,” as he put it, allowing only one walk in the second and striking out the last five Harbor Hawks he faced. His stabilization gave the offense a chance to fight back early, and it’s a chance they took.

With one out in the bottom of the first inning, designated hitter Brody DeLamielleure (Florida State) got the party started with a five-pitch walk. Second baseman Jamie Laskofski (North Carolina) followed with a single past his counterpart Charlie Bates (Stanford), who, while diving for the ball hit up the middle, managed to slow it down without wrangling it in, allowing DeLamielleure to scamper into third base.

With a runner in scoring position, right fielder Cash Strayer (Florida) kept the line moving with a single of his own to put the Whitecaps on the board. Not content with just the one run, third baseman Holden Pantier (Georgia Tech) doubled down the right field line to bring in Laskofski.

An inning later, Abernathy had his shot to be the early-game hero, motoring around the bases. When he dove headfirst into third, he did it with the satisfaction of knowing he had scored shortstop Jake Lambdin (Duke) to give his team the lead.

“I saw their backs turn in the outfield; they were still going for the ball,” Abernathy said. “I was halfway there to second, so I was like, ‘I might as well just keep going.’”

While Abernathy gave the Whitecaps a lead they never gave up, it was arguably Pantier, the man who tied the game, who had the biggest impact on it.

Pantier has only appeared in three games for Brewster as a mid-season addition, but has made his presence felt. The DI transfer from Walters State Community College in Morristown, Tennessee, drove in another run in the third inning on a groundout, drew a walk in the fifth, and scored after his second double of the game in the eighth. After Sunday’s action, his slash line is up to .500/.615/.700.

“It’s definitely been an adjustment (to the Cape),” Pantier, who spent the first part of his summer with the Johnson City Doughboys of the Appalachian League, where he posted a 1.153 OPS, said. “But it hasn’t been anything overwhelming. There’s some things that make it a little easier, some things that make it a little more challenging.

“Strike zones are definitely better, so that makes it easier. Pitchers are more consistent, but the stuff plays up a bit, so you just have to go up there with an approach.”

And while Pantier has flashed the bat, he’s also made jaw-dropping plays with his glove. He made an inning-ending double play in the seventh inning with two runners on, stepping on third base to get the first out before firing cross-body to first to get the second.

An inning prior, he recorded the last out of the frame by snagging a line drive out of the air on a dive. The play was so spectacular that even the magician wasn’t sure if he was going to be able to pull off the trick.

“I didn’t think I was going to get it,” Pantier said. “Not at all.”

Pantier’s defensive highlights helped left-handed reliever Sebastian Santos-Olson (Miami) and right-handed reliever Schuyler Sandford (Florida) escape the sixth and the seventh, respectively.

Those two arms, along with RHP Finbar O’Brien, managed six innings of five-hit, one-run baseball after Rizy’s short outing. For O’Brien, the two perfect frames he tossed were in contrast to his last outing, where he gave up five runs in 1.2 innings pitched against the Bourne Braves in the aforementioned July 30 game.

“Finbar came in and probably had his best two innings of the entire summer,” Shevchik said. “He saved the best for the biggest moment he was in. That was some electric stuff out there today.”

The bullpen was just one of the many facets of the team that fired on all cylinders after Rizy’s rocky start. From the early offense that snatched the lead to the defense that helped protect it, the Whitecaps earned themselves a cohesive team victory.

It was the type of win that produces confidence for the future, but also one that shows how tight-knit the group in Brewster truly is, fighting back and picking up any slack in the line.

“We’re out there, literally playing baseball in the backyard,” Abernathy said. “That’s how it feels when we come out here every day. Before the games we’re all chopping it up, talking together, and it just feels like a brotherhood.”