WAREHAM, Mass. — Offense was easy to find at Spillane Field on a gloomy Sunday evening. A matchup between the top two teams in the West Division saw the Wareham Gatemen club three home runs to stomp the Hyannis Harbor Hawks, 11-6, in what was a back-and-forth contest until the later innings.

Eli Putnam stole the show despite hitting in the eight-hole for the Gatemen (6-2), collecting three hits, two of which were home runs. The Davidson first basemen also drove in a trio of runs and scored twice over five at-bats, along with swiping a bag.

"We made some bad pitches and [Wareham] really capitalized on them," head coach Mitch Karraker said. "They're really physical, and when you make mistakes, you pay for them. This was our first game where I thought we didn't pitch very well — we just weren't up to the challenge today."

Momentum shifted in the bottom of the sixth when Murph Gray gave Wareham the lead with a two-RBI double after a few infield singles and a walk. Gray had an excellent night at the dish, driving in three runs on two hits.

From an offensive side of things, the Hyannis (5-2-1) lineup got to Wareham starter Braeden Sloan early. The tall left-hander struggled with his command from the jump, issuing walks to Parker Brosius (Georgia Tech), Nick Groves (transfer portal) and Anthony Silva (TCU) while plunking Zach Yorke (Grand Canyon) and Wallace Clark (Duke) with breaking balls. The Hawks took advantage of this, plating three runs across, paired with an Eric Snow (Auburn) sac fly.

However, the Hyannis hitters weren't the only ones who came out of the gates with urgency. The Gatemen strung together three straight base knocks to start the bottom half of the first, giving starting pitcher Trey Beard (FAU) a rude awakening. Beard was able to work around his jam but didn't get back into the dugout without allowing a run brought in by a Gray bloop single.

It seemed as if whenever Hyannis was able to scratch runs across the board, Wareham struck back quickly to apply pressure on the Hawks. The club eventually cracked under that pressure after failing to cash in on big innings when the Gatemen arms were struggling.

"I felt like tonight, and even the three in the first inning we got, were from stuff that [Wareham] gave us," Karraker said. "I think our offense has to get going a little bit. When we get that lead, we need to find a way to smell blood in the water and finish the job earlier. We let them hang around and it came back to bite us."

Although Beard allowed eight hits across four innings, the southpaw battled, punching out five and walking zero. The Dunedin, Florida, native gave Hyannis every chance to come out victorious on Sunday using his 71 mph changeup off his 90 mph heater to keep Wareham’s hitters honest.

Things got shaky in the Hawks bullpen for the first time this season. After Beard exited, the team's relief arms combined to give up three home runs, eight earned runs, nine hits and just three strikeouts over the final four frames.

Two defensive mistakes in the bottom of the fifth haunted the Harbor Hawks. A throwing error with two outs granted Wareham’s Nate Earley third base after he ripped a double. The Earley double scored Jace Rinehart, then the Florida Southwestern product scored on a timely passed ball a few pitches later.

One Hawk who stood out in a good way Sunday was Snow. The second basemen transferred to Auburn University ahead of the game and put his new school on notice with a multi-hit performance, collecting a pair of RBI to boot.

"I felt very calm in the box [Sunday]," Snow said. "I think confidence is a big thing, you know, I was up here last summer and it's made an impact on me because I'm used to the routines. Baseball is hard, especially here, you have to know that you're gonna fail a lot. You just have to build on the successes."

Six different Harbor Hawks roped base knocks on Sunday, but Snow was the only player who recorded more than one. He put together solid at-bats and smoked a pair of singles north of 90 mph off the wood, along with his sac fly in the first inning.

"We've got a great team here, and, you know, we hit the ball really well at the start of the season," Snow recalled. "I think if we can find a way to get back to that, we'll be in good shape."

The Gatemen bullpen served head coach Ryan Smyth's club well, hurling seven frames of one-run ball highlighted by Lucas Mahlstedt, who earned the win.

With Sunday's loss, the Hawks fall to second place in a tight West Division, while counterpart Wareham slid up a slot, sitting atop the CCBL's West despite a minus-8 run differential.

Hyannis has an important test coming Monday, when the team will travel back home to McKeon Park to play the Bourne Braves at 6 p.m.

"We talked about at the end of the game how we got dominated," Karraker said. "That's baseball sometimes. For me as a coach, I just need to continue to provide positive energy and to give our guys as much confidence as we can. I believe in us, and if the team believes in themselves, we'll be ready to go [Monday]."

Sam Fosberg can be reached at samfozsports@gmail.com and followed on Twitter/X @discussbaseball