YARMOUTH, Mass. – In hockey, you always want to tally more points than games played on a road trip.

After a makeup game on Thursday and a subsequent rainout on Saturday at Lowell Park, the schedule called for five straight contests as the visitors for the Cotuit Kettleers, wrapping up with a date against the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox at Red Wilson Field on Monday.

And just like a hockey club, the Kettleers were pleased with leaving with a point in the standings after an 8-8 tie in six innings of play, bringing them to a total of seven points gained after a 3-1-1 performance over the last five contests in their maroon jerseys.

“It makes me feel like we're very competitive, and it'll be nice to play at home,” Cotuit manager Mike Roberts said. “We rarely ever play three games at home because we had the makeup [game] on Thursday.”

The back-and-forth affair that saw just three scoreless frames on the scoreboard had action from as early as the second at-bat of the game.

In his second game after a short hiatus for a friend’s wedding, Tanner Thach (UNC Wilmington) made up for lost time by depositing the first pitch he saw for a solo home run to right-center field, his seventh of the summer. The Kettleers followed up in the second inning as Easton Winfield (Texas) scored from first on a Devin Taylor (Indiana) base hit aided by the Longhorn commit getting an automatic start with two outs in a full count.

However, the Red Sox had a response for Cotuit coming in the form of two-out homers in the hitter-friendly home ballpark in the bottom of the first and second innings.

R.J. Austin (Vanderbilt) took Kettleers starter Harrison Bodendorf (Oklahoma St.) deep over the shallow center field fence in the first before Talmadge LeCroy (South Carolina) pulled a ball 356 feet down the left field line one inning later to tie the game at 2.

The second time through the Y-D order proved costly for Bodendorf and the Kettleers as a leadoff double by Phoenix Call (UCLA) and a wild pitch in the next plate appearance caused Roberts to go to the bullpen.

Dylan Howanitz (Boston College) entered a jam in his Kettleers debut and failed to stop the bleeding, as Austin walked and stole second to set up a two-RBI single for Anthony Martinez (UC Irvine) in the next at-bat to put Y-D up two.

“They battled. Coach [Scott] Pickler’s teams are always hard-nosed baseball players and they always battle,” Roberts said. That’s why they’re in first place in the East, and if you look at his consistency through his tenure, they’re in first place more than anybody in the East.”

The submariner couldn’t get out of his own way either, as a throwing error on a tailor-made double play ball sailed into center field to extend the inning. Two free passes later, Martinez scored on a Gavin Gallaher (North Carolina) RBI walk to put the Red Sox up 5-2 before Howanitz could retire the side.

However, Cotuit had a counterpunch in the top of the fourth inning. The first four batters reached base safely as Y-D reached into its bullpen, leading to one run on a Matt Klein (Louisville) single. From there, productive outs from Brandon Compton (Arizona St.) and Charles Davalan (Arkansas) tied the game at 5-5.

The Kettleers benefitted from an error on a grounder to Call at shortstop that would have ended the inning, with Compton scoring as the throw rolled to the fence along the first base line.

Up a run, Roberts tried to give Howanitz the benefit of the doubt with a clean inning in the bottom of the fourth, but decided to opt for Zach Duenas (Western Kentucky) after Call and Austin led off the frame with their second hits of the evening.

Duenas couldn’t find the shutdown inning Cotuit was looking for all game, although he entered in a tough spot. Martinez tied the game with his second single on the night, but Cotuit’s 6-foot-10 right-hander induced a double play that the Kettleers traded for a run to give the Red Sox a 7-6 advantage.

With sunlight fading, the Kettleers' chances in the game faded in the fifth as Caleb Anderson (Wichita St.) faced the minimum in the top half of the inning. Thankfully for Cotuit, Duenas posted the first zero in the home half of any inning in the bottom half of the frame to give Cotuit a shot in the sixth with time to play running out.

Back-to-back one-out singles by Klein and Compton set up Davalan to tie the game with an RBI knock of his own to right field that bounced Anderson from the game.

Against fresh arm Dylan Delvecchio (Saint Mary’s), Nolan Nawrocki (South Carolina) put together perhaps his best at-bat of the summer.

In a nine-pitch duel, the third baseman spoiled two-strike offspeed offerings from the Gaels lefty until he saw another fastball he could handle, which he drove to the gap in left-center field to give the Kettleers an 8-7 lead.

The hit marked the 15th of the game for Cotuit, which saw eight starters reach base with Compton, Winfield, Taylor and Davalan all record mult-hit performances.

“I think we've had great continuity in our team. We've had a bunch of guys that get along super well. We've been grinding it out all season,” Nawrocki said. “And I think we're just starting to click as a group more than individually. I think we're just passing the baton to the next guy and really having good at-bats.”

But the Kettleers weren’t out of the woods just yet, needing to navigate a prolific Red Sox order in the bottom of the sixth inning.

The dimensions of Red Wilson Field came back to bite Cotuit, as Ethan Petry (South Carolina) hit a back-breaking 359-foot home run to dead center off Luis Misla (SUNY Cortland) in a full count to serve as the final run of the game before the umpires and both coaches decided enough action took place in 2 hours, 40 minutes.

The Kettleers will enjoy an off day on Tuesday before three straight home games at Lowell Park from Wednesday to Friday, starting with a clash against the Orleans Firebirds at 5 p.m.