COTUIT, Mass. — Bottom of the ninth, runners at the corners with two outs, Jarren Advincula (Georgia Tech) at the plate in a 2-1 count, and it’s the last inning due to darkness. If Advincula can collect a base knock, it’ll secure Cotuit’s third straight win.

The pitcher gets his sign, gets set and throws. The newly committed Yellow Jacket swings and hits it down the third-base line. It’s going to be a close play at first, but he beats it, and the Kettleers dugout explodes in excitement as they just took down the Falmouth Commodores, 3-2, on Thursday.

“We’ve learned from other situations when we haven’t come back. We have a saying in the dugout, ‘Just keep playing.’ If you keep hanging in there and playing, good things happen sometimes,” Cotuit manager Loren Hibbs said. “It wasn’t our best effort, but we showed some resiliency and had some guys come through with big-time hits. It was a good team win.”

Falmouth struck first in the opening frame with runners at the corners and two outs. Kent Schmidt (Georgia Tech) hit what should have been an easy third out, but the ball rolled through Advincula’s legs, allowing a run to score.

Advincula made up for that error when he drew a six-pitch walk in the bottom of the third before advancing to second base on a Dean West (UCLA) single. Ryne Farber (Auburn) approached the dish next and battled with the Falmouth pitcher. The Auburn Tiger came out on top, ripping an RBI single on the sixth pitch of his at-bat.

With runners at the corners and one out, Cotuit threatened for more, but back-to-back strikeouts ended what could have been a big third inning.

After allowing two Commodores to reach base with no outs in the fourth, Deverman was pulled for Wyatt Halvorson (Arizona State). The Sun Devil was as efficient as he could be, forcing a double play on his first pitch, then getting a groundout on the second one to end the frame.

Falmouth took back its one-run lead in the top of the sixth when Maika Niu (Marshall) launched a leadoff home run over the left-field wall to give the Commodores a 2-1 advantage. Halvorson would bounce back and retire three straight batters to bring up the Cotuit bats.

He tossed a scoreless frame in the top of the seventh and was pulled for Charlie Walker (Northeastern) heading into the eighth inning. Halvorson threw four innings and gave up a single hit and an earned run on the solo homer by Niu while striking out a pair of batters.

In the bottom of the eighth and with the Kettleers running out of time, Farber stepped up to the plate. The Cotuit middle infielder mashed a 1-1 count pitch over the right-field wall to tie things at two apiece.

“You try to keep the same approach every time, be good on the top half of the ball and look for a pitch over the middle of the plate,” Farber said. “Thankfully, he threw me the same pitch from an earlier at-bat, and I was able to do the rest.”

After a one-out walk, Hibbs pulled Walker for Tyler Albanese (San Jose State) in the top of the ninth. The big hurler got the final two outs, courtesy of Jack Natili (Cincinnati) throwing out a runner at third base.

After two quick outs, Cotuit was down to its final chance before the game would be called due to darkness. A pitch hit Nolan Stevens (Oklahoma) before Case Sanderson (Nebraska) ripped a single that advanced Stevens to third base with Advincula coming to the plate.

The Ketts middle infielder took the first three pitches, then hit a ball down the third-base line on the fourth and beat out the throw to clinch a 3-2 walk-off win for Cotuit.

“It was awesome. When you win at Cotuit, you know the fans support you and obviously the team has my back, it was a great feeling,” Advincula said.

Notes

• Advincula’s infield single secured a 3-2 victory, Cotuit’s second walk-off win at home this season.
• Farber has been playing exceptionally over the last week. The shortstop is batting .455 with a home run, seven RBIs and a 1.182 OPS over the previous six games.
• The Kettleers’ offense was ineffective to start the summer. However, over the last six games, Cotuit is top three in the CCBL for batting average, OPS, runs scored, stolen bases, walks and OBP.

Looking ahead

The Kettleers will play the Commodores again Friday for the annual July Fourth matchup between the two teams. First pitch is at 5 p.m. from Fuller Field.