FALMOUTH, Mass. — Falmouth entered the 2025 season with hope. It had hired former MLB catcher and World Series champion Jarrod Saltalamacchia as its manager, hoping to turn the tides from a fifth-place finish in 2024.
But despite Saltalamacchia’s wisdom, the Commodores’ season was truly a rollercoaster. At some points, it was cruising. Its bats were hot and all its pitching needed to do was not mess things up.
Falmouth couldn’t hold that explosion for long, experiencing plenty of setbacks in its tumultuous campaign. Multiple lengthy losing streaks forced the ‘Dores into a win-and-in scenario to make the postseason in the final regular-season game of the campaign on Sunday.
And they ultimately fell short. In Saltalamacchia’s first year with Falmouth, it went 16-23-1 for the second straight year, once again missing the playoffs. Despite stellar individual performances, the Commodores never fully recovered after going 2-11 across 13 games near the end of the season. They finished sixth in the league in OPS (.673) and last in ERA (4.92), contributing to their early exit.
“When you recruit, you recruit a certain way, and then things change,” Saltalamacchia said after Falmouth’s season-ending loss. “So it's a constant change. That's the toughest part of this.”
The start of the season was up and down. Falmouth opened hot with a 1-0 shutout of Chatham in its season-opener, backed by strong pitching performances from Kaden Echeman and Conner Linn.
From there, though, the ‘Dores dropped six of their next eight games, including a three-game losing streak to Wareham, Yarmouth-Dennis and Hyannis.
“The first few games, you're just trying to feel guys out,” Saltalamacchia said after Falmouth’s loss to Y-D. “We're trying to figure out the lineup, where they fit best.”
But that’s when Falmouth took off, winning eight of the next 12 games. It snapped its skid with a 5-3 win over Bourne and 3-1 triumph against Harwich.
Its offense reached its full potential after that. In eight of the Commodores’ next 11 games, they scored at least five runs. They downed Chatham 9-7. They beat Bourne again 8-6. They also claimed a thrilling 10th-inning victory over Harwich in which Virginia Tech’s David McCann smashed a go-ahead homer in extras.
During that span, Falmouth was propelled by numerous offensive standouts. Maika Niu (Arkansas) simply couldn’t be stopped, moving to a league-high seven homers midway through the season. Niu cooled down in the second half but eventually captured Cape Cod Baseball League MVP honors after he slashed .280/.364/.508 with eight dingers and 23 RBIs.
Georgia Tech’s Kent Schmidt and California’s Carl Schmidt also stood out offensively this season. Kent started cold but heated up to power the Commodores in their hot streak, leading the team with 24 RBIs. Carl began similarly but ended batting .284 with a .358 on-base percentage.
The three were part of six All-Stars Falmouth had on offense (nine total), which also included outfielder Antonio Morales, catcher Bear Harrison and infielder Adrian Lopez.
The firepower helped Falmouth move over .500 on the year and occupy first place midway through the season.
“We're really starting to gel as a team,” Morales said after downing Bourne on July 1. “We care about each other, we want to play for each other, and that's what we did today, we were able to pull out a really big one.”
But it was all downhill from there.
Despite its wins, the ‘Dores’ pitching wasn’t stellar. After star arms like Echeman (2.25 ERA), Grayson Saunier (3.00 ERA) and Trever Baumler (0.92 ERA) left after reaching innings limits or to prepare for the MLB Draft, the struggles caught up to the Commodores once their offense cooled down.
After beating Cotuit 7-6 on July 11, Falmouth went on a four-game losing streak, including 12-3 losses to Wareham and Brewster, killing all of its momentum. That was just the start. After breaking that streak, the Commodores embarked on a season-high six game skid, plummeting them to fifth place in the West and in position to miss the playoffs with five games left.
But Falmouth finally perked up at the right time. It broke out of its funk with a 13-1 run-rule win over Hyannis and a stunning comeback victory over Chatham via a four-run eighth.
The ‘Dores then downed Wareham in their penultimate regular-season game, setting up one final chance to make the playoffs by beating Cotuit.
But Falmouth fell just one hit short of doing that. It grabbed the lead multiple times but could never pull ahead by more than one run. That was the ‘Dores’ downfall, as the Kettleers claimed the 6-5 victory with a two-run 10th inning.
The end result was underwhelming. Falmouth looked to be trending in the right direction after missing the playoffs a year prior. But not even a new coaching staff and the league’s MVP could catapult the Commodores to a revival.
“They fought til the end. That’s the way baseball is unfortunately,” Saltalamacchia said. “But I think at the end of the day, these kids all learned something about themselves that they can take to the school year, and I expect all of them to have great years.”
Noah Nussbaum is the beat reporter for the Falmouth Commodores. You can read all of his articles on the Commodores here.
