FALMOUTH, Mass. — With five games left, Falmouth was playing with fire. It sat two games back of a playoff spot after its 10-3 loss to Y-D and Cotuit and Hyannis’ tie on Tuesday. The ‘Dores hadn’t even held a lead for more than one half-inning on their season-high six-game losing streak.

It looked even more likely that the ‘Dores would miss the postseason for the second straight year. But they could still mount a comeback.

Wednesday’s battle with Hyannis was the last straw. A win would keep them in striking distance with four games to jump into the playoffs. A loss could only solidify the Commodores’ fate.

They chose the former. Falmouth (14-21-1) destroyed Hyannis (14-18-4) 13-1 on Wednesday, snapping its six-game losing streak. The Commodores scored their second-most runs all season and had eight of their nine batters reach base in the blowout. The victory was massive, as Falmouth now sits three points behind Hyannis for a playoff berth.

“Seeing guys finally start to get out of that rut that we had for six games, (it’s) just easy to go from there,” said Reece Moroney, who finished 3-for-3 with five RBIs.

The ‘Dores’ offensive explosion on Wednesday was completely different from their recent woes. Previously, they hadn’t scored seven runs in a game since July 11. It took just three innings to do that against the Harbor Hawks.

The fireworks were foreshadowed by a late offensive surge against Y-D. Falmouth scored two in the eighth to make it a 4-3 game. But its pitching imploded at the worst time, allowing six runs in the bottom half to seal Falmouth’s defeat.

Despite the disheartening result, the Commodores rebounded on Wednesday. After rocking with a bullpen game at Y-D, Falmouth gave FIU’s Jeremy Urena the ball versus Hyannis. He entered allowing just one earned run through two starts, including surrendering four unearned runs his last time out against Bourne.

With sound defense behind him, that dominance persisted against the Harbor Hawks.

A Jeff Lougee first-inning double was the only hit he allowed in the game. Across the opening two frames, he got Ryan McKay to fly out to escape that jam before spinning a 1-2-3 second.

On the other side, Hyannis trotted out a familiar arm. Carson Jasa, who allowed three runs in the two’s last meeting, took the mound on Wednesday and was even worse.

Falmouth ran with a routine lineup after recent changes, though it was void of All-Star Carl Schmidt. After scoring just six runs over their last four games, it took two innings for the Commodores to strike on Wednesday.

Leadoff singles from Bear Harrison and Justin Osterhouse set the table in the second. Falmouth snagged its first lead since Thursday afterward.

With Harrison on third, Moroney (Rhode Island) nubbed an RBI infield single. Cayden Brumbaugh then knocked an RBI groundout before Moroney scampered home on a Jasa wild pitch to make it 3-0.

The explosion continued the following frame. After not going deep since July 6, Maika Niu clobbered a 3-1, chest-high fastball to left for his league-leading eighth homer of the season.

“When it was 3-0, I was in between swinging or not. And then he went fastball, middle. I was like, if he throws that again, a little bit more up, that's what I'm looking for,” Niu said. “It was probably a little high, but I was looking up, so I got to it.”

Falmouth kept poking and prodding. Its peskiness broke the game wide open. It became a four-run inning via a Harrison sacrifice fly and a Moroney two-run single into right.

That was the momentum the ‘Dores desperately craved.

“We got confidence,” Niu said of the early 7-0 advantage. “I don’t think we had confidence in games for a long time.”

All Falmouth had to do was not blow up. Urena made sure that wouldn’t happen.

He extended his streak to 10 straight batters retired with 1-2-3 third and fourth innings. He induced three weak groundouts to Kent Schmidt at first and a deep flyout to center fielder Morales to end his stellar day in the fourth.

Urena gave Falmouth all it needed — four scoreless innings on just one hit. And Bucknell’s Everett Garber kept the line moving by working around a Charlie Bates one-out walk in a scoreless fifth.

The pitching success ensured Falmouth’s offense didn’t need to do much the rest of the game. But it had other ideas.

In the fifth, Moroney poked a single down the right field line for his fourth RBI of the day, making it 8-0. Falmouth crossed the 10-run mercy rule via five runs in the bottom of the sixth, which included a Kent Schmidt two-run double.

Meanwhile, the Commodores’ arms locked down the win. Garber allowed Hyannis’ first run on a Jake Schaffner sac fly in the sixth. But it was a moot point. Garber closed out the run-rule win with a scoreless seventh frame.

Falmouth was losing time to make a move toward the playoffs entering Wednesday. But its decimation of Hyannis made a statement — it wouldn’t go quietly. Now, the Commodores have a tangible chance to fight for a postseason spot with four games left.

“We do our thing these last four games, then we have to play some more baseball,” Niu said. “So just take it one game at a time.”

Noah Nussbaum is the beat reporter for the Falmouth Commodores. You can read all of his articles on the Commodores here.