BOURNE, Mass.— In the two games of the West Division Championship Series between the No. 4 Bourne Braves and No. 2 Cotuit Kettleers, the common theme has been capitalizing on mistakes.

The Kettleers did so in Game 1, scoring two runs on balls to the backstop as they held on for a 3-2 win. And on Thursday at Doran Park, the Braves took advantage of sloppy play from the visitors in the bottom of the sixth and seventh innings to even the series at one game apiece in a 7-4 victory.

“The walks and the errors add up in regards to runs. I've always said this in my career, ‘Let's stay under two walks and no errors and we got a good chance to win,’” said Kettleers manager Mike Roberts. “They're a very good team but we certainly helped them out a little bit.”

Game 2 took the same shape as the first playoff matchup between both teams, staying close for the first half. Tyler O’Neill (Bucknell) was given the start, working around runners in scoring position in the first two frames to hold Bourne scoreless.

But he could only play with fire for so long, allowing a leadoff single to Chris Stanfield (Auburn) to lead off the third. O’Neill checked on the runner excessively against Ethan Conrad (Wake Forest) as Cotuit expected him to run. As the at-bat dragged on, Stanfield eventually faked a stolen base attempt that fooled Kettleers shortstop Luke Hanson (Virginia) into covering the second base bag. Conrad poked a two-strike pitch to the vacated area for what would wind up a perfectly executed hit-and-run.

On the next pitch, Marek Houston (Wake Forest) singled to left field to plate Stanfield and open the scoring as O’Neill was chased from the game in favor of Mason Davenport (Stetson). In a jam, the 6’9” right-hander did his job, retiring the next three batters after walking the bases loaded and only allowing one more run to cross on a David Lewis (North Greenville) sacrifice fly.

On the other side of the ball, Braves starter Tyler Fay (Alabama) was dominant in his first two times through the Cotuit order. Working extremely quickly from the windup and mixing three pitches well, the right-hander allowed four baserunners total across his first 18 batters faced and shutout Cotuit through four innings.

As the lineup turned over in the fifth inning for a dreaded third time with a runner on first and two outs, leadoff man Brandon Compton (Arizona St.) knew what to expect.

“I feel like we had to make that adjustment, knowing he's working fast, he's trying to get it going quick,” said Compton. “My third at-bat there was someone on first so he had to slow down and he threw two balls, so I just knew I had to get a good swing off. I knew a fastball was coming because he wants to get ahead and work a count.”

Ahead 2-0 against Fay, Compton got the fastball he was looking for and got just enough of the pitch to send it over the right field fence for a game-tying two-run homer.

However, the Kettleers couldn’t sustain momentum against the Braves in the second half of the game. After his walk of Braden Holcomb (Vanderbilt) to start his relief outing, Davenport faced the minimum through the fifth inning before handing the reigns to Zach Duenas (SIU Edwardsville) for the sixth.

In the steady rain, Duenas never found his footing, walking the first three batters he faced, even as pinch-hitter Cameron Nelson (Wake Forest) squared around to bunt on every pitch of his plate appearance with runners on first and second base.

“We walk three guys in a row and when you do that, when you got a tie ballgame, it's tough to win,” said Roberts.

Roberts decided he had seen enough and tasked Brycen Parrish (North Alabama) with the impossible task of getting out of a bases-loaded jam with no outs. Parrish was up to the task, but couldn’t blank the Braves.

Bourne took the lead on a Davis Gillespie (Southern Miss.) two-RBI single that snuck into the outfield grass with the infield drawn in. Parrish retired the next three batters, but another sacrifice fly by Stanfield put the Braves up 5-2.

Cotuit had a response in the next frame, threatening against Zach Crotchfelt (Auburn) in his second inning of work when a walk and two singles gave the Ketts three ducks on the pond with none out. Two ground balls to the shortstop from Devin Taylor (Indiana) and Charles Davalan (Arkansas) cut the deficit to one run and allowed Jarren Advincula (Cal) to step up to the plate with the tying and go-ahead run in scoring position with two away. However, the ever-reliable second baseman couldn’t come through with the big hit as he did in Game 1, striking out swinging on a fastball for just the eighth time this summer.

Bringing the game back within one, the Kettleers desperately needed a shutdown inning with only six outs to work with. But for as good as the Cotuit defense had been all year, they picked a poor time to have kinks.

Hanson let a ball roll under his glove on a slow roller from Lewis, setting up runners on the corners with two outs. The mistakes compounded in the next batter, as Tanner Thach (UNC Wilmington) failed to stay down on a grounder from Tristan Bissetta (Clemson) and the ball rolled into shallow right field to give Bourne a 6-4 lead.

The Braves didn’t mess around with victory in arm’s reach, turning to John Abraham (Florida St.) for a six-out save. The closer only had to deal with one runner in scoring position in his appearance, stranding Nathan Hall (South Carolina) at second base in the eighth inning and working around a leadoff walk of Compton in the ninth to put a bow on Bourne’s second win this postseason.

“We know what we need. It was two errors-- that's what bit us, and balls. We're gonna hit-- I know that and I know tomorrow we're gonna work good defensively at our field,” said Compton. “This field got super wet and muddy, so it got tough, but I feel like we're going to come out and compete and do the best we can.”

The Braves victory sets up the second win-or-go-home scenario this postseason, this time with the chance to face the Harwich Mariners in the CCBL Championship Series beginning on Saturday. The higher-seeded Kettleers have the honor of hosting Game 3 of the West Division Championship Series, which takes place at Lowell Park at 4 p.m. on Friday.

“It'll be intense. But, intensity is fine, but you got to relax and play well. And you have to feel prepared in every situation,” said Roberts. “That's the key to winning in a championship atmosphere.”

Photo by Holden McBerty (Memphis).