FALMOUTH, Mass. — Falmouth entered its two-game series with Cotuit on Thursday and Friday with a powerful offense and struggling pitching staff. The stretch with the Kettleers changed that completely.

Instead, the Commodores’ offense was the unit scuffling while their pitching shined. Falmouth produced five runs over the two matchups, and its pitching allowed four. The two sides split the series as a result.

But with a new opponent, Wareham, came another opportunity to have both sides clicking. The 'Dores hadn’t compiled a complete game since two wins over Orleans in their first six games of the season.

That changed Saturday. Falmouth destroyed Wareham, 11-5. TCU’s Trever Baumler notched his longest outing of the summer, surrendering only two runs and three hits over five. Falmouth’s offense also heated up, powered by Justin Osterhouse’s (Alabama) season-high three RBIs, helping push the Commodores over .500 for the first time since their season opener.

“ Pitching with the lead, it's a different mentality,” Baumler said postgame. “You stay competitive and you stay aggressive towards the hitters. So it all ended well.”

Wareham and Falmouth’s last matchup on June 21 was much different. The 'Dores mustered just three hits, while TJ Coats allowed four runs in the second inning. That helped Wareham cruise to a 4-1 win.

But on Saturday, the script was flipped. Wareham (6-12) entered on a four-game losing streak, falling by a combined score of 26-16. Falmouth took advantage.

The surge was kick-started by Falmouth’s pitching for the third straight game. Baumler started his second game of the summer, entering without allowing a run in 9 2/3 innings. He was just as efficient versus the Gatemen by commanding his fastball around the zone, he said postgame. Baumler opened with a six-pitch first inning, benefiting from Wareham's swing-first approach.

Despite starting the second inning with two strikeouts, Baumler made his only mistake of the day. Hunter Carns lined a middle-middle slider over the left-field wall for a two-run homer, giving Wareham an early 2-0 advantage.

But if Falmouth (9-8-1) could produce consistently offensively, the deficit wouldn’t matter. It did so in a big way.

The 'Dores started on the wrong foot, wasting Carl Schmidt’s fifth consecutive leadoff single then allowing the Gatemen’s Josh Butler (Arizona State) to produce a 1-2-3 second. But Falmouth just needed time to heat up. In the third, the Commodores struck. With two runners in scoring position, Antonio Morales (Maryland) lifted a sacrifice fly into center to score Chris Newstrom.

That was just the start. After one hit through three innings, Falmouth tallied four knocks to take control in the fourth.

Niu started by singling and stealing second, part of his 4-for-5 night. Osterhouse then tied the game in a big way, driving a stand-up triple into right-center.

“Something for me to learn is to keep it nice and easy, just find the barrel and to finally get something up in the air. It was all I needed,” Osterhouse said of his approach.

Bear Harrison followed by giving the 'Dores their first lead, 3-2, with a line-drive sac fly to the same area.

Meanwhile, Baumler put Carns’ blast behind him, not allowing another run before his day ended in the fifth. Wareham kept swinging early, but Baumler said he made sure to execute the first few pitches to induce weak contact.

As a result, he retired all six batters in the third and fourth on a miniscule 13 pitches. Baumler’s fifth inning wasn’t as pretty, but he escaped a bases-loaded, two-out jam with a Levi Clark groundout.

The performance kept the 'Dores in the driver’s seat. Reliever Kaleb Applebey — who stifled Falmouth in the first matchup — didn’t fool the Commodores this time. Osterhouse collected his second RBI by chopping the ball over Applebey’s head to score Lopez in the fifth.

The Commodores had a bigger cushion. Matt Sauser (UCF) initially coughed it up.

Sauser had allowed nine earned runs through three starts, and nothing changed immediately. Without Baumler on the mound, Wareham looked rejuvenated. Carns totaled his third and fourth RBIs by lining a double down the left-field line, plating Landon Stripling and Colby Turner, tying the game 4-4.

With Sauser’s rough start, Falmouth needed to score, or it’d be left behind. Though it was unconventional, it did just that.

The Commodores capitalized off Wareham’s sloppiness, which included seven errors. Immediately after Carns’ knock, they made it 5-4 after second baseman Brayden Randle sailed a throw over Stripling at third, scoring Ryan Zuckerman. An inning later, the same situation occurred. With Lopez rumbling to third on a Niu single, right fielder Easton Breyfogle skipped the ball out of play again, scoring Lopez.

Osterhouse tacked on with his third RBI of the game by lacing a single past the drawn-in infield. That was all Falmouth needed.

This time, Sauser held the lead. He erased two baserunners in the seventh by inducing a Chris McHugh double play, then posted his best inning in the eighth, allowing just a Turner single.

His rebound allowed Falmouth to put the game away with a four-run eighth. Zach Johnston (Wake Forest) effortlessly closed out the victory with a scoreless ninth.

Coming into the game, nothing was clicking at the same time for Falmouth. It felt like if one area was shining, another was holding it back. But both areas finally locked in at the same time, acting as the key Falmouth needed to move back over .500.

“It's huge. We're all coming out here to win at summer ball. We're just having a blast,” Baumler said.

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