FALMOUTH, Mass. — The Brewster Whitecaps had just watched the riches of victory — and the guaranteed playoff spot that came with it — slip through their fingers. A one-run lead, which was gained after trailing the Falmouth Commodores for the first seven innings of their Monday evening matchup, was erased in the bottom of the ninth. Salvation, however, was still possible.

Brewster right-handed reliever Zach Kmatz (Oregon State) kept the game tied and alive. Then, in the top of the 10th, with two runners in scoring position, center fielder Michael Torres (Miami) stepped up to the plate with a game plan: “hit it up.”

Torres wasn’t able to execute the strategy, but he came through nonetheless, poking a single through the right side of Falmouth’s drawn-in infield, scoring two and paving the Whitecaps path to victory.

“That definitely wasn’t what I was trying to do,” Torres said. “But it’s God’s plan, and he brought it out for us. The ‘Caps always win after the seventh inning; that’s what they always say.”

Thanks to late-game heroics, Brewster (19-7-3) pulled through to defeat Falmouth (11-16-2) 7-5 in 10 innings on the road at Guv Fuller Field despite going hitless through the first 4.2 frames of action. With the victory, the Whitecaps clinched an early playoff berth, as the last-placed Orleans Firebirds — who lost shortly after Brewster clinched on their own volition — sit 25 points behind with only 22 available.

“This is my 12th season; I don’t know if I’ve ever been part of a team that’s clinched a playoff spot with 11 games to go,” Whitecaps manager Jamie Shevchik said. “We have really good players that clinched the playoff spot with more than a quarter of the season left to go. That doesn’t happen very often.”

Brewster became the second team to clinch a postseason appearance after the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox, which clinched on July 16 with a victory over Orleans.

Being just the second team to punch their ticket to extra baseball, while sporting a .731 winning percentage, carries a connotation of dominance; however, 36.8% of the Whitecaps' 19 wins have been courtesy of offensive charges in the seventh inning or later.

Monday was a textbook example of one of those victories.

“It’s been this whole year, and honestly, we all like it,” Torres said. “(It) gives Shev a scare and he doesn’t like it that much, but the team definitely likes putting it back on the other team and stealing the game.”

Brewster’s grand heist truly kicked off in the eighth inning. After recording two runs on two hits and two walks through the first seven frames, the Whitecaps still trailed the Commodores 4-2, but a pair of free passes put them on the precipice of a brand new game.

Third baseman Holden Pantier (Georgia Tech) was the first Whitecap to try and take advantage of the situation, stepping into the right-handed batter’s box with a walk and a couple of flyouts to right field on his line. The transfer from Walters State Community College went the other way again, but this time found the grass on a double down the line, clearing the bases.

Left fielder Blaine Brown (Tennessee) immediately replaced Pantier at second, doubling over the head of Falmouth center fielder Fabio Peralta (Miami) to give the Whitecaps a newfound 5-4 lead.

Before the outburst, Shevchik was left scratching his head. He had All-Stars like Jamie Laskofski (North Carolina) and Jay Abernathy (Oklahoma) on their way out the door and four new additions to the roster — shortstop Will Baker (Georgia Tech), second baseman Tryston McCladdie (Clemson), left fielder Jamie Daly (Clemson) and right fielder Adam Haight (Oregon State) — but didn’t expect the “vibes” to be as “weird” as they were before the eighth.

“We played dead,” Shevchik said. “I don’t know if we were in mourning because of losing Jay and losing Jamie or what. … I was hoping that the whole dynamic of the team didn’t just change because of two players, but what a way to welcome the new guys in (than) with a game like we just did here today. Hopefully, those guys feel like they’ve been here for weeks now.”

Before the celebrations could commence, however, Brewster had to finish the job, which turned out to be no easy task.

Kmatz entered and navigated the eighth cleanly, but an infield single off the tip of his glove and two walks in the ninth set the stage for a game-tying sac fly, forcing the offense — including the new faces — to go back to work.

Baker started the 10th on second as the automatic runner, and fellow newcomer McCladdie joined him on the basepaths after walking, bringing a third, Haight, up to the plate with no outs. Instead of trying to be the hero in his first game with the team, the right fielder played his role, laying down a sacrifice bunt toward third base to give Torres his chance with both runners in scoring position and no force outs in play.

“We were here two years ago, and we didn’t bunt in a scenario, and we ended up losing a game,” Shevchik said. “I told (hitting) coach (Scott) Grimes, ‘I’m not going to make that mistake again.’”

After retaking the lead, Kmatz was set back out to the mound and slammed the door with three straight outs.

“Zach has been our guy the whole summer,” Shevchik said. “I wanted somebody out there who’s been in moments like that this summer, who can handle the pressure.”

The Whitecaps' late success was set up by the pitching performance of RHP Nate Taylor (Vanderbilt), who stopped the bleeding after starter Tate DeRias (Baylor) allowed four runs over three innings, driving his pitch count to 70.

Taylor took the mound after managing just 0.1 innings in his previous outing, giving up five earned runs in the process. He pushed that to the side, however, locking up Falmouth over four perfect frames, striking out six before handing the ball to Kmatz.

“Coach (Tim) Corbin at Vanderbilt says ‘stabilize the game,’” Taylor said. “If we’re ever down in a spot where it's not looking good early on in the game (he) says, ‘go in and stabilize the game.’ That was a main objective of mine today.”

Taylor’s dominance allowed the groggy offense to wake up without proceedings growing further out of hand.

First baseman Eddie Yamin IV (Louisiana State) delivered the first blow to Commodores starting pitcher Colby Putnam (Gardner-Webb) in the fifth inning with a home run to left field, his third of the summer.

The homer was the only hit Putman gave up, but he didn’t ride a wave of success by missing bats, as the righty only recorded one strikeout. Instead, it was his ability to pound the zone and induce weak contact that got him through the game.

Once Falmouth turned to the bullpen in the seventh, the floodgates began to leak, starting with catcher Jacob Lee’s (Virginia Commonwealth) RBI single that very same frame.

It was all smiles for the Whitecaps after the dam fully burst and they successfully robbed the Commodores of a victory. The struggles of the early innings were long forgotten, and everyone from the squad's longest-tenured players to the four newcomers soaked in the win and what it meant after a postgame speech from Shevchik, who’s now headed back to the postseason for the second time in as many years.

“I’ve been here since day one, so I’ve seen the highs and lows of this team,” Torres said. “Seeing us put it all together is really great to see, and Shev’s smile on his face says it all.”