Baseball can be poetic and cruel.
The Harwich Mariners opened the summer with a scrimmage against the Yarmouth-Dennis that went over nine innings at Red Wilson Field. Their second-to-last game went 13 innings at the same field.
Niko Brini played more games than any other Mariners this season. He was in the starting lineup in the first game and the last. The outfielder played through injuries yet did not consider leaving the Cape.
That’s why it hurt that much more to see the guy who gave his heart to the Mariners end the season. Down 7-1 in the ninth inning with a runner on first and one out, Brini lined into double-play to close out Game Three of the Eastern Division Championship. Field manager Steve Englert’s squad lost the series 2-1 to the Red Sox, officially ending the season.
It was a tough final game for the Mariners.
Y-D Scott Pickler started Evan Mobley out of Southern Florida. The Division II pitcher did not make an appearance during the entire summer for the Red Sox. Y-D’s season rested in the hands of a pitcher who had not faced a batter on the Cape.
With a defense that gets to almost every batted ball behind him, Mobley was nearly perfect. He threw 3.2 innings of one-run baseball.
After him, Y-D brought out Joshua Landry, a lefty out of Hope International University, a junior college in Fullerton, California. With a looping curveball that sat in the low-70s and a fastball touching the mid-80s, Landry tossed one of the best performances Harwich saw all season.
The quiet bats put pressure on the pitching and defense to be perfect.
Unfortunately, the ball did not bounce the Mariners' way. The defense made two errors in the field, and missed chances to turn several hits into outs.
Starting pitcher Tanner Duke threw one of his better outings all summer. He managed to complete five innings where he allowed four runs, two of which were earned. While he gave up just two hits, he hit three batters which gave Y-D free baserunners.
He cruised through the first four innings, giving up just one run. It was in the fifth when Y-D scored a trio of runs thanks to a combination of a Sam DeCarlo error and two triples.
Jack Volo gave up eight hits in the final four innings for the Mariners. He struggled to miss bats, getting just one strikeout on the night. Y-D scored three runs across the final two innings.
Harwich’s best opportunity for a late rally came in the seventh. Aiden Robbins and Ryan Gerety each singled to put two on with just one out.
The timely hit never came though. An issue that plagued the Mariners all season. Catcher Matt Conte just missed on a fastball and hit a towering fly ball that was short of the fence in left field. Robbins got tagged for the third out when he got caught leading too far at second base on a pick-off attempt.
Pickler pushed all the right buttons against the Mariners. Harwich scored in just three innings in the entire series.
Looking back:
While it was not the finish the Mariners hoped for, 2025 was still a successful season on the field. The team finished second in the East Division with a winning record of 21-16-3. The pitching staff allowed the fewest runs in the league, proving to be the stabilizing force from beginning to end.
