Thursday night was uncharacteristic for a squad that’s come out the gates white hot.

The Falmouth Commodores (3-2) welcomed in the Harwich Mariners (4-1) for a matchup that was, on paper, as even as it gets: two solid offenses with stellar pitching staffs. The result showed no indication of that, as the Mariners took a 13-0 win in eight innings on the road. Chet Lax (Wright State) led the way with five innings of three-hit ball against the Commodores, while Julio Solier (Boston College) was one of the many offensive stars for Harwich, recording a multi-hit day to bring his season total to seven for a team high.

Commodore starter Wilson Magers received a rude welcome to the Cape, as Solier roped a leadoff single in the top of the first. After getting moved over by a groundout and a single, Solier came around to score on a double steal called by Mariner head coach Steve Englert (Kansas State).

The next four half frames were quite clean for Magers and Lax on the hill for their respective squads. Falmouth started to make noise in the bottom of the third, however, with consecutive two-out singles from Nick Venteicher (Creighton) and Ty Kaunas (Texas Tech) putting runners on the corners. Gavin Greger (Rutgers) proceeded to launch a bullet into right field, only to have it snagged by a diving Colin Larson (Boston College), robbing the Commodores of a run.

Harwich used the next half inning to pad their lead to three. A pair of hit batters, separated by a fielding error, loaded the bases for the bottom half of the Mariner order. JP Peltier (Wright State) and Quinton Coats (Cincinnati) both dribbled grounders to short that brought in two more runs for Harwich.

The Mariners would keep the pressure on and scratch across one more in the fourth to make it 4-0. Micah Rienstra-Kiracofe (Kent State) put a double into the left-center gap to start the rally and flip the lineup card. He advanced on a single from Solier, and waltzed home on a passed ball – a sign of the troubles that J.J. Kennett and the Commodore bullpen would run into it on Thursday night.

Despite the turbulence, reliever Casen Murphy (Louisville) continued to attack, punching out the next three batters to escape the jam and limit the damage.

The Commodores weren’t as lucky in the top of the seventh, as a leadoff double from Connor Capece (Creighton) opened the floodgates for a trio of runs to come across. Larson and Tyler Smolinski (Kansas State) found themselves in scoring position as well later in the inning, and all three would score on wild pitches from Tyler Guerin (Georgia Tech).

“I think [the rally] started with the passed ball there in the [fourth] inning,” according to Kennett after the game. “I got to be better about that. After that, it's just tough getting ahead and finding what was going right and what was going wrong. It was just trial and error and I think we disconnected on that part.”

At the seventh inning stretch, it was 7-0 Mariners, and that score would balloon in a six-run eighth for Harwich. Four base hits, a walk and a grand slam later, the deficit became 13 runs as the Commodores took the run rule loss.

For the ‘Dores, the bats couldn’t get going after their third inning surge was stifled and failed to put base runners on in four of the final five innings. Kennett chalked this up to the ups and downs of the game, saying that the adjustment will be “attacking those mistakes early and not chasing out of the zone, really sticking to our approach, letting the ball travel, shooting the ball down the line somewhere. I think just resetting, taking [things] with a grain of salt today and letting it go is the most important part of that.”

However, the most important part of Kennett’s Thursday night was seeing the bigger picture through the agony of the loss.

“You just learn what each other are made of. You show up tomorrow, and if you're still sulking about it, you're not playing the right sport. Baseball is all about failure…It's a blessing to be out here with these guys, competing in this league under these circumstances. [We should be] thankful for what we have and giving thanks to the Lord. Being able to be here is just going to allow us to play with ultimate freedom tomorrow and be able to bounce back, for sure.”

The ‘Dores will seek better days in Bourne on Friday, June 19. First pitch is set for 6:00 p.m.