BREWSTER, Mass. —The 2025 Brewster Whitecaps season has swung like a pendulum—scorching highs, freezing lows, quiet bats, sudden rallies, and just enough chaos to make you think twice before predicting anything. There have been flat days where energy disappeared, and single-inning implosions that flipped wins into losses. But what’s stood out most is this team’s refusal to let those bad stretches snowball. When they’ve needed a spark, a jolt, or a turnaround—more often than not—it’s been the Hyannis Harbor Hawks standing in the other dugout.

After a franchise-best 6–0 start—one of those wins coming against Hyannis—Brewster hit its first wall: a three-game skid that felt like a hard crash back to earth. Then came Hyannis. At the time, they boasted the league’s most dangerous offense—yet Brewster dominated, 6–1.

Weeks later, after suffering their worst loss of the year—a 16-run blowout and their third defeat in four games—Brewster was desperate for a reset. Then came Hyannis. A ten-run outburst powered the ‘Caps to a much-needed 10–4 win.

The latest chapter came Monday. Heading into the All-Star break, Brewster had lost two straight and four of five—a stretch where nothing clicked and frustration boiled over. But just like before, when they needed a win most—then came Hyannis. Five arms, led by Xavier’s Ryan Piech with three scoreless innings, combined for a strong outing. The bats chipped in late, scoring two go-ahead runs in the seventh to flip the script. Final: Brewster (16-12-1) 4, Hyannis (12-14-3) 2. Another skid stopped, another spark found—with the Hawks at the center once again.

"We got Hyannis at the right time," Shevchik said. "That's crazy. They're our bounce-back game every time we go on a little bit of a skid. Now, if we can start beating everybody else, that would be nice too. But hey—right team, right spot."

Before the All-Star break, Brewster dropped back-to-back games in nearly identical fashion—by scores of 7–2 and 7–3—getting outscored 14–5 over the stretch. The offense stalled, but the pitching setbacks were even more glaring.

Head coach Jamie Shevchik often reminds that in a summer league of amateurs swinging wood bats and playing for development over hardware, runs are hard to come by. Scoring more than two or three a night is ideal—but not always realistic. What is realistic, and essential to winning, is limiting the other side to the same. That’s how you survive and stack wins in this league.

On Tuesday, Brewster finally did just that. It started with Piech, making just his second appearance with Brewster. After the loss to Chatham, Shevchik emphasized that the first few innings in the Cape are everything—they dictate the energy, the tempo, and often the result. When your starters are giving up four or five early, he said, you’re playing from behind the entire way.

Piech flipped that script in the bounce-back win over Hyannis. He went just three innings, but they were clean—two hits allowed, both in the third after back-to-back one-two-three frames, and he calmly induced a flyout to end the threat. He struck out three and left with the game still scoreless, giving Brewster the steady start it had been missing.

That early stability helped the offense wake up right away. After a single from Collin Priest (Clemson), up stepped Carson Tinney (Texas), who hasn’t lit up the stat sheet this summer, but when he connects, it’s loud—five of his seven hits have gone for extra bases. Tinney got a middle-middle fastball and didn’t miss, launching a 110 MPH rocket to right-center to bring Priest home and open the scoring.

"There's a reason why (Tinney's) hitting in the lineup every other day when he was hitting .050, right?" Shevchik said. "Because he's too good of a player. You hit .350 with 20 home runs at school—I mean, you're too good of a player to come out here and continue to struggle. We knew he was going to figure it out at some point. I hope he still does. But, you know, I'm happy for him."

Fast forward to the fourth. After Piech exited, Zach Bates (Illinois) took over in relief—eventually one of five ‘Caps to step in from the bullpen. But trouble followed quickly. A Cal Fisher (Florida State) fielding error and a walk from Bates opened the door, and Hyannis took advantage, knotting the game with an RBI single. It went down as one of two unearned runs Brewster would allow on the night—zero earned across the board.

Brewster briefly retook the lead on a Hyannis fielding error in the fourth, but the game quickly settled into a tense pitchers duel.

"We were a little sluggish today," Shevchik said. "So were they. I thought it wasn’t that the energy was down—it just seemed a little stale today."

Both bullpens held firm, and with Brewster unable to tack on insurance, the pressure mounted. By the seventh, Hyannis made it count.

As he’s done all summer, Mavrick Rizy (LSU) took the mound and dominated—blending 97 MPH heat with backdoor frisbee sliders to strike out three straight into the seventh. But a routine grounder to second baseman Dalton Wentz (Wake Forest) was misplayed and thrown away, putting a runner on second with one out.

Shevchik has never hesitated to trust Rizy in big moments—but this time, the script flipped. Sawyer Black (North Carolina) took two pitches, then drilled the third into the left-center gap for a game-tying RBI double. Not only had Hyannis evened the score—it was the first hit Rizy had allowed all summer, a jolt that silenced the Brewster crowd.

The momentum carried into the bottom half. As darkness loomed—a familiar Cape storyline—Brewster’s offense struck with urgency. Tinney singled and was pinch-run for by Colton Coates (LA Tech), who stole second during an eight-pitch battle with Scott Newman (Georgia). Adam Magpoc (San Diego State) laid down a textbook sac bunt, Fisher followed with a sac fly to score the go-ahead run, and Brendan Lawson (Florida) lined one up the middle to bring home another.

A textbook inning—smart baserunning, timely hitting, and just enough contact to push across two runs and secure a crucial win. Not flashy, but exactly what wins games in the Cape.

"You're going to have to win games like that, especially down the stretch run," Shevchik said. "Now we're getting really close to playing college baseball right now. It's not their team anymore; it's the organization's team. They're just part of it, and they've got to play a certain style of baseball—do whatever they can to win games."

Photo credit: Casey Bayne.