In a battle of attrition, the Falmouth Commodores (6-6-1) welcomed the Brewster Whitecaps (7-5-1) on Sunday evening for a test of wills on both sides. The Whitecaps ended up prevailing by the slimmest of margins – it took one Commodore mistake for the game to sway their way in the ninth.

For the second consecutive game, and sixth time this season, the Commodores surrendered a first-inning run to their opponents. Terrance Kiel II (Texas A&M) worked a leadoff walk, moved to third on a single from Brody DeLamilleure (Florida State) and scored on a Cash Strayer (Florida) sac fly.

The ‘Dores would have an opportunity of their own in the bottom half of the first after Austin Mallee (transfer portal) poked a leadoff single and Fabio Peralta (Miami) was hit by a pitch. Both runners moved into scoring position, but back-to-back strikeouts from Brewster starter Payton Manca (Florida State) put an end to the Falmouth threat.

“We let [Manca] off the hook. We let him off the hook there in the first,” said hitting coach Beau McMillan. “He was mixing it up all over the place.”

The bounce-back inning from Manca was a start to a scoreless three-inning outing for him, fanning five of the twelve batters he’d face.

The Whitecap lead was doubled with a pair of extra-base hits from the bottom of their order. Edward Yamin IV (LSU) bounced a line drive off the chalk of the left-field line for a one-out double before Jake Lambdin (Duke) roped a triple into the right-center gap to drive him in, making the score 2-0.

An error by Pete Daniel (Virginia Tech) in the bottom of the fourth was all the ‘Dores needed to start their climb back into the contest. Ryder Woodson (Mississippi State) drove a double into the left-center gap to bring Jimmy Nugent (Louisville) around to score, then came in on an opposite field single off the bat of Riley Jackson (Kentucky).

Brewster punched back in the following half-inning with a pair of one-out singles from Jamie Laskofski (North Carolina) and DeLamileure to regain a 3-2 lead, and in the top half of the sixth, that Whitecap advantage seemed to be on the brink of ballooning out of control, as they loaded the bases against Jack Durso (Miami), pitching his first full inning of relief.

With one out in the inning, he’d force a weak fly ball to left field off the hands of Lambdin and into the pocket of Pearson Riebock’s (Baylor) glove – a play he and Peralta had been anticipating all at-bat.

“Fabio, right before that pitch, actually goes, "Get your arm ready right here," and he starts doing some arm circles. I was just messing around with him [before] the ball came to me [on] a low line drive.”

As Owen Jenkins (formerly Kentucky, in transfer portal) charged home in an attempt to score, Riebock reared back and fired a laser on a hop to Nugent’s chest to nab down Jenkins and bring life into the heart of the Commodore dugout.

“Jimmy had a phenomenal pick on that,” said Riebock, giving some much-deserved recognition to his catcher. I short-hopped him and he still picked it and put the tag down.”

It took a bit for the Commodores to wake the bats up once more, but once they did in the seventh, they began to make noise, starting with a leadoff single from Ben Slanker (Louisville) and a walk drawn by Carl Schmidt (Cal).

Riebock stepped to the dish with the tying run on second, and in classic Commodore fashion, squared to bunt at the start of his at-bat. He’d fail to lay it down, finding himself down two strikes in the count after a few pitches – essentially forced into a position to swing.

“I was pretty upset with myself not getting it down for the team,” Riebock said after the game. “It's not about me in that situation. It's about advancing the runners.”

Despite his back being against the wall, Riebock made the most of the final strike in his third plate appearance and nailed a sharp grounder under Laskofski’s glove and into the outfield, scoring Slanker to tie the game.

After the clutch hit, he said “I took a deep breath. I was like, I gotta do this for my guys right here and put something in play and run hard, that's all I can do right there. And it worked out in my favor.”

The score remained 3-3 heading into the ninth, when Lambdin and Laskofski manufactured the most critical run of the game for the Whitecaps. Lambdin led off with a base hit, stole second, and wheeled himself around to home plate after Laskofski’s grounder snuck through the legs of Woodson, putting Brewster up one.

However, Falmouth wasn’t done fighting in the ninth – a base hit from Riebock and, fielder’s choice thereafter and an intentional walk placed the winning run on second base with two outs. It was then that Zach Kmats (Oregon State) would bear down for the Whitecaps, getting a strikeout to end the game and secure the 4-3 win.

“Sometimes it just doesn't go your way, but we battled tonight,” said McMillan after the game. “They're young dudes, they're figuring it out, there's really not a lot of quit in [them].”

A clear bump in the road for the ‘Dores, but McMillan has full confidence in his squad being able to process and recover for their next opportunity.

“We just got to love coming to the ball field and going through the process and getting better,” he said, speaking on how the team overcomes the loss amidst a tight race for first place in the West Division. “I think we have a group of guys that feel that way, so I know this won't affect us in a negative way tomorrow, we’ll come out and be ready to go.”

Once again, the Commodores find themselves tied with Bourne atop the West, with Cotuit on their tails just one point back of the top spot. They’ll travel to Hyannis on Monday, June 29, in search of a pivotal win.