COTUIT, Mass. — One bad inning. Sometimes, that’s all it can take to morph a winnable game into a heart-wrenching defeat. The Brewster Whitecaps know this all too well. In fact, they had seen it happen in each of their last three losses before Sunday — mostly due to self-inflicted wounds.

It started on Tuesday, when the Whitecaps took a 4-2 lead into the bottom of the eighth inning in Orleans, holding every ounce of the game’s momentum in their dugout. Three outs later, an error-riddled frame threw them into a 7-4 hole that they never recovered from. In its next outing against Y-D, Brewster trailed just 5-3 at the midway point. But again, one inning made all the difference. Sparked by a fielding error on the leadoff batter, the Red Sox plated four in the seventh to put the contest all but out of reach. 48 hours later versus Harwich, it was rinse, wash, repeat.

So far this season, no game has exposed this trend more than the last time the Whitecaps visited the Kettleers on July 5. A once two-run game descended into complete chaos behind a nightmarish 14-run sixth inning by the Kettleers. The worst part? All but one of those runs were earned, meaning Cotuit hadn’t even needed the benefit of Brewster’s mistakes to completely dismantle it.

But in the two sides’ final matchup of the season, the roles were completely reversed from their last. This time, it was Brewster (18-15-1) who wound up on the winning side of an ugly blowout, trouncing Cotuit (14-18-2) by a final score of 9-1. Energized by Zach Bates’ (Illinois) lights-out relief outing, the Whitecaps’ offense recorded 13 hits for the second day in a row, completely overpowering the Kettleers’ lowly six. At the same time, five Brewster players contributed at least an RBI in the dominant win, further solidifying its identity as the most hot-and-cold team on the Cape.

“It was good that they remembered (the last game against Cotuit). They probably had a little extra motivation today than in a normal Cape Cod Baseball League game,” Whitecaps manager Jamie Shevchik said postgame.

For the first time this season, Brewster’s pitching staff is finally set in stone — for the most part. However, this comes with a downside. Now with only a limited number of arms to use in each game, Shevchik has to be much more cautious how he uses them. That’s why instead of bringing in experienced reliever Bates amid Brewster’s six-run free fall against the Mariners, he opted to rest him until the next day. The decision paid off.

Moments after stranding two Kettleers in scoring position to close the first frame, starter Ryan Piech (Xavier) was taken out of the game due to injury. The tough break forced Bates to come in much earlier than expected to open the second. Despite essentially being thrown into his first start of the season, the lefty quickly found his rhythm after running into a few minor bumps in the road.

Bates surrendered a leadoff triple right off the hop, which was eventually brought home via a sacrifice fly two batters later. Now with the all-important first run on the board — along with the game’s early momentum — the Kettleers looked to add onto their lead. Instead, Bates stripped away their confidence one out at a time.

“It felt like it was kind of my game a little bit, which was awesome,” Bates said. “I never really had that feeling this past spring, but it’s definitely something that I enjoy.”

Over the next three frames, Bates captained the Whitecaps’ defense to consecutive shutout innings and only allowed as much as one Kettleer on base due to a wild pitch. A Day 1 reliever, Bates’ 4 ⅓ innings of work Sunday marked the most by any member of the ‘Caps’ bullpen so far. Still, he thrived under the pressure. Finishing the day with only one hit, earned run and walk to his name, Shevchik dubbed the performance Bates’ “best outing of the year.”

When Mitch Dye (Illinois) finally took over midway through the sixth inning, Bates gave his Illini teammate a favorable spot to step into. Not only did Cotuit have just one runner on base when he walked onto the bump, but its order’s confidence was clearly shaken. Dye picked up right where Bates left off, holding the Kettleers scoreless across the next two frames before Chris Knier (Florida State) came in to finish the job.

When reflecting on the decision to keep Bates on the mound for an extended time, Shevchik said postgame it was part of a larger plan to prepare his bullpen ahead of a potentially grueling postseason schedule.

“If we get into the playoffs, you potentially need to play nine games in nine days. You need everybody to throw long, right? You need guys to bounce back on short rest,” Shevchik said. “If we squeeze into the playoffs, you get a pretty good idea of who the guys are that can be there for you for long innings, and who the guys are who can take just small bits of innings at a time.”

Between Bates and Co.'s shutout frames, Brewster’s offense managed to nearly replicate their productive outing from the day before against Harwich.

It began in the third when Brendan Lawson (Florida) logged Brewster’s first hit of the day with a single. Once Maddox Mihalakis (Arizona) shifted Lawson over with a double, a wild pitch was all he needed to slide home and tie the game at one.

To start the next inning, Brewster’s bats again refused to be silenced. With two runners aboard, Carson Tinney (Texas) ripped a line-drive RBI double — his fourth extra-base hit this year. A Kettleers pitching change only delayed the inevitable, as Adam Magpoc (San Diego State) brought the ‘Caps' lead to 3-1 with a sacrifice bunt to score the runner from third.

Completely in control now, the Whitecaps continued to flex their offensive depth down the stretch as the Kettleers' defense scrambled to stop the bleeding.

Midway through the seventh, Mihalakis roped his second RBI in five games as a Whitecap, and on the next at-bat, Dalton Wentz (Wake Forest) brought home three more runs with a homer into deep right field to make it 7-1. The blast brought him up to 19 RBIs on the season, the third-most of any player on the Cape. After going yard 12 times this past spring with Clemson, Collin Priest even finally broke through for his first homer — a late two-run bomb in the final frame.

From here on out, the climb to the finish line doesn’t get any less steep for the Whitecaps. Following one last off-day to recharge its batteries Monday, Brewster will embark on a gauntlet of six games in six days — including four against divisional foes.

Just five points still separate the East’s top four teams, so every game should be treated as a must-win moving forward for the Whitecaps. And with each matchup now more important than the last, this final stretch will either make or break Brewster’s aspirations to claim a spot at the big dance come early August.

“I’m more concerned about winning games in the East. It’s either that, or we should get transferred over (to the West) next year,” Shevchik said. “If we get into the playoffs, all that goes out the window. Nobody cares what your record is against the East or the West. Now, we’ve been here long enough where our goal is to just win a championship.”

Title photo credit: Kayla McCullough.