The Wareham Gatemen took down the Harbor Hawks, shutting them out 3-0 in the final game of the regular season. Hyannis’ (15-21-4) offense never got going, missing opportunities to score while their pitching was lights out after the first inning.
As the Hawks made their final out in the bottom of the ninth on Sunday night, heads turned not toward the dugout but toward Falmouth. Their playoff fate hung in the balance, depending on the Commodores' (16-23-1) game result. After losing to Wareham (20-20), Hyannis needed Cotuit to beat or tie Falmouth in extra innings to sneak into the playoffs.
Tension hung in the air at McKeon Park as fans checked phones and players gathered around the dugout railing, eyes wide, hanging on every pitch notification. Then came the moment. As Cotuit closed out a dramatic win down the coast, the Hyannis bench erupted. Shouts echoed across the park, and players jumped in celebration. It wasn’t the path they hoped for, but the Hawks were playoff-bound. Manager Mitch Karraker spoke on the waiting game at McKeon and what he told the team.
“I just said, ‘Hey, let’s see what happens,’ then we’ll kind of meet after that,” Karreker said. “The frustrating part is, we wish we had just taken care of business ourselves. But it was a tough game tonight. Wareham’s a good team. They’ve been a good team all season.”
Indeed, the finale had all the makings of a playoff tune-up, but instead, Hyannis was held scoreless and mustered just five hits against a relentless rotation of Gatemen arms. Wareham used six different pitchers, none for more than two innings; consistently disrupted Hyannis’ timing at the plate.
“They pounded the strike zone,” Karraker said. “I don’t fault our guys for that. They pitched really well. And to come in and know you only have one inning is a little bit easier than thinking, ‘OK, I want to go three or four… From an offensive perspective, that approach is hard. You’re seeing somebody different every single time.”
Still, Karraker pointed out that the Hawks continued to battle.
“My biggest takeaway is that our guys care, right?” he said. “They were fighting tonight as much as they could. It’s very easy—after a long year, going since August at their schools, not seeing families for a while—for guys to check out. But every guy really cared about wanting to keep playing together. That’s pretty special.”
It showed, even in a shutout loss. Hyannis struck out eight times but worked deep into counts. A few early scoring chances came up empty, but the intent was clear. Karraker said the team just needed to make quicker adjustments at the plate.
“They just made pitches,” he said. “Hopefully, we can make adjustments a little bit sooner within the at-bat to get more hits, more runs, all that kind of stuff.”
Hyannis’ pitching staff, on the other hand, continued its strong stretch. Starter Mason Russell allowed three earned runs in 1.2 innings, the only runs Wareham would score. Arms like Liam Kinneen and Conner Kelley give the Hawks tons of innings of relief pitching to count on in these playoff series.
“He’s huge,” Karraker said of Kelley. “He closed for a really good UTSA team that won a ton of games. Since he’s been on the Cape, he’s been nothing but nails for us.”
Kelley has been a closer and late reliever for the Harbor Hawks and coupled with Stanford closer Ryan Speshyock, Hyannis can expect to close out games with a slamming door.
“[Kelley’s] stuff is really good. Super composed. Doesn’t let the moment get too big for him,” Karraker said. “Having him and Speshyock and Wertz, who just got here, those are three guys who are very comfortable in the back end. That’s where games are won, right there in the seventh, eighth, and ninth. So we feel really good about that group.”
The Harbor Hawks are set to take on the Bourne Braves in a three-game series starting on Tuesday. Hyannis will need to be firing on all cylinders to beat the number one-seeded Braves on their journey to become Western Division Champions.
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