COTUIT, Mass.—As the Cotuit Kettleers resumed play from their July 25 contest against the Falmouth Commodores on Saturday afternoon at Lowell Park, the hosts only needed to make two substitutions to field a team once Zion Rose (Louisvile) stepped up to the dish in a 0-1 count with two runners on in the third inning.

But nine days later, it’s clear it’s not the same team that took the field in the maroon pinstripes as they fell by a score of 7-5 to mark Cotuit’s fifth straight loss.

Up 2-1 when new pitcher Tyler O’Neill (Bucknell) entered the game, the lead the Kettleers amassed through two innings quickly disappeared. Rose squared around to bunt as the Commodores pulled off a double steal, prompting Cotuit manager Mike Roberts to draw the infield in despite the early advantage.

Rose promptly dropped a lawn dart into shallow center field to plate two runners, and Falmouth never looked back.

“It's definitely tough. It's kind of just the keep moving forward mentality,” said O’Neill. “Obviously things are gonna happen. Baseball is a fickle game, but you got to just keep pushing and move to the next batter.”

Able to start with a clean slate in the fourth, O’Neill was roughed up as two walks and a double in the gap by Karson Bowen (TCU) extended the Commodores lead. The Bison right-hander settled in after the fact, retiring the next seven batters and blanking Falmouth in the fifth and sixth innings.

It allowed enough time for the Kettleers to stage a comeback effort in the fifth, cutting the lead to one on Easton Winfield’s (Texas) two-RBI single on a liner to center.

But in the third time through the order against O’Neill, the Commodores continued to play spoiler with a two-out rally. Three straight hits plated two more runs, with Trent Caraway (Oregon St.) and Jack Bell (Texas A&M) driving in the insurance runs.

The Kettleers fought back after the seventh-inning stretch, pouncing on fresh meat in new reliever Edward Hart (Duke). The first four batters recorded hits, moving station-to-station with Luke Hanson making a full go-around the bases on a good piece of two-strike hitting by Devin Taylor (Indiana).

Still in a tremendous position to tie the game and potentially take the lead, the Kettleers offense couldn’t put the ball out of the infield. Winfield grounded into a 3-2 fielder’s choice to retire the lead runner at the plate, and pinch-hitter Grant Jay (Dallas Baptist) popped into an infield fly.

However, the wind took first baseman Patrick Roche (Boston College) for a ride as the ball landed on the infield dirt. Brandon Compton (Arizona St.) read the play well, breaking immediately for home on a gamble to cut the lead to one. But just as they have throughout the losing streak, the bounces simply didn’t go Cotuit’s way.

Second baseman Isaiah Barkett (Stetson) picked up the long hop and fired a strike to home, nabbing Compton on a close play to end the seventh.

“I feel like we're hitting the ball again, which is good, because we were kind of slow for a little bit and we're getting guys throwing strikes,” said Compton. “As soon as the ball in the gap’s caught and errors aren't made and baserunning, all that stuff kind of lines up, I feel like we're gonna win a lot of games.”

Submariner Dylan Howanitz (Boston College) did his job in the eighth and ninth, keeping the game close as Cotuit put the tying runs on base in their last two turns at the plate. Still, Hart found a way to escape jams in both frames, inducing weak contact to Tanner Thach (UNC Wilmington) to get out of the eighth and catching Jay looking and jamming Nathan Hall (South Carolina) for a grounder to the pitcher’s mound to end the game.

Following the Kettleers loss and Bourne Braves win in their matinee of a twin-billing against the Orleans Firebirds, the defending CCBL champions are just two points back of second place where Cotuit and Wareham currently sit. Cotuit controls its own destiny to host a playoff game, having clinched the tiebreaker over all four playoff teams in the division.

“You just got to play both games the best you can fundamentally and know that once playoffs hit, everything's gone off to the side and you just play the best ball you can,” said Compton. “You flip a new page and do your best.”

The Kettleers are running out of time to build momentum going into the postseason, but have a great opportunity to do so in the second half of the doubleheader Saturday night against the Commodores at Guv Fuller Field in Falmouth. First pitch is set for 6 p.m.

Photo by Holden McBerty (Memphis).