WAREHAM, Mass. -- Despite clinching a playoff spot Monday in a win over the Brewster Whitecaps, the Cotuit Kettleers may have hit rock bottom.

Holding an 8-2 lead after three innings and outhitting the opponent, 15-1, the Ketts let the Wareham Gatemen claw their way back into the game and leave Spillane Field victorious with a 10-9 walk-off victory Friday.

“We've got better baseball players than what we're playing,” Kettleers manager Mike Roberts said.

Cotuit entered the night on its longest losing streak of the season at three games and off the heels of two straight shutouts. It was a stretch unseen for the Kettleers since 2016, who came up to bat at the first wearing a consecutive scoreless innings streak of 20.

Cotuit seemingly couldn’t buy a run over the previous two nights but appeared to exorcise its demons by scoring eight runs by the end of the third.

The Kettleers especially looked primed to turn the corner in the first, as the first three batters recorded hits and moved station-to-station to load the bases. However, the offense left an escape hatch open for the Gatemen and starter Cole Leaman (Lehigh) after Devin Taylor (Indiana) popped one up on the infield and Tanner Thach (UNC Wilmington) couldn’t avoid a sharp grounder off the bat of Charles Davalan (Arkansas) while running to second base for the second out.

But for the first time since the losing streak began, bounces began to go Cotuit’s way. Jarren Advincula (Cal) beat out a weak chopper for an RBI single to score Cotuit’s first run in two games and Grant Jay put a crooked number on the scoreboard with a two-strike single rocketed through the left side to plate two runners.

The Kettleers hammered Leaman in the second inning, bouncing him from the game after recording just four outs on 10 hits and seven earned runs allowed.

“The last two games we were shut out, so it was it was nice to see some life on the team today,” said infielder Temo Becerra (Stanford), who went 2-for-3 with a walk on the night.

The Kettleers scored in each of the first four innings, even responding after Luis Misla (SUNY Cortland) had a rough third in which he issued four free passes and threw a pair of wild pitches that helped the Gatemen push two runs across.

Cotuit spoiled a shutdown inning for Wareham in the fourth with the help of an Advincula stealing third base on a close play. Gatemen manager Ryan Smyth came out and argued the call incessantly, enough to get ejected from the game.

Whether or not there was extra intent behind the theatrics, Smyth without a doubt fired up his dugout that was staring down the barrel of a sixth straight loss.

Down 9-2 as the Ketts moved to the bullpen and the Gatemen could grab the bats for the first time without Smyth to guide them on, Wareham shrunk the deficit to three runs after hitting Brycen Parrish (North Alabama) hard and being aided by two Tyler Cerny (Indiana) errors.

“Our defense in every area has just been really poor,” Roberts said. “I told them to look at every play out there tonight and look how many we gave them-- one run here, two runs there.”

The Gatemen pitching staff finally had an answer for Cotuit, as Jack Smith and Zane Coppersmith combined to retire the next six batters. That gave enough time for William Parker (Army) to make it a 9-7 ballgame after crushing a no-doubt home run off the roof of the snack shack in left field.

Heading to the late stages, Cotuit was able to put runners on base in each of the seventh, eighth and ninth innings. But as the Kettleers defense began to show the same cracks it had throughout the week, the Gatemen only started to play stronger in every facet of the game.

Wareham worked around a leadoff single from Becerra in the seventh by immediately inducing a double play from Brandon Compton (Arizona State). With nearly all momentum in their favor, the Gatemen relied on more defensive mishaps to complete the comeback in the bottom half of the inning.

With one out and two runners on, Jay couldn’t corral a Mason Davenport (Stetson) offering to Eli Putnam (Davidson) that moved both ducks on the pond into scoring position. The Wareham first baseman put a ball in play up the middle that caromed off the glove of a diving Becerra at shortstop, trickling into center field that allowed both runners to score and knot the game up at nine.

And when Cotuit needed clutch hits the most, the luck ran out. The Kettleers put the go-ahead run on base in both the eighth and ninth inning, only for Wareham to turn miraculous double plays to eliminate any scoring threat.

In the ninth, Wareham continued to apply pressure as the first two hitters notched base hits, and a Zach Duenas (SIU Edwardsville) wild pitch put runners on the corners. A mental lapse on a short hop line drive to Becerra with the infield in could’ve resulted in a double play for Cotuit as Jacob Jarrell (Clemson) didn’t initially run to second base. Instead, the Ketts shortstop checked pinch-runner Bayram Hot (Louisville) back to third base and no one covered second as the play resulted in a strange fielder’s choice to load the bases.

There was little suspense as Duenas had nowhere else to put Putnam, walking him on five pitches to bring home the winning run, snapping Wareham’s five-game losing skid and sending Cotuit spiraling.

Wareham and Cotuit both sit behind the Hyannis Harbor Hawks in the West Division standings with 43 points each, and the Kettleers hold the tiebreaker with a 3-2 head-to-head record. While all four playoff spots out of the West are locked up, seeding is not.

“Right now we just got to keep going pitch by pitch, game by game and just get to the next game and just keep playing how we're doing,” Becerra said. “I thought today we did really well. We could have played defense a little better today. But we swung the bats well, so as long as we keep doing that, I think we'll be fine.”

Additionally, Cotuit has a uniquely quick turnaround with 16 innings needed to be completed Saturday against the Falmouth Commodores. The Ketts will kick off their day at noon, resuming play in the top of the third inning from the July 25 contest before playing at Guv Fuller Field at 6 p.m. in an originally scheduled showdown.

“It's always self-motivation. If you like to play, you like to play-- I shouldn't have to motivate them. All I need to do is make out the lineup card,” Roberts said. “It's their self-motivation, so we'll see how they show up tomorrow.”

Photo by Holden McBerty (Memphis).