HARWICH, Mass. — The 2025 Brewster Whitecaps haven’t taken the easy road — they’ve taken the wild one. If you came looking for clean innings and calm box scores, this team wasn’t for you. But if you’ve got a taste for chaos — for games that flip or crash in slow motion — Brewster delivered. And somehow, through the mess, they’ve earned a postseason ticket.

They’ve touched both ends of the Cape spectrum: a red-hot start, 14-0 mercy rules, three-homer fireworks. But the lows? Just as unforgettable — 19-3 and 10-0 blowouts, and nights where one hit felt like a celebration. When this team goes flat, it’s more than a slump — the air leaves the dugout. Back in game seven, Y-D carried a no-hitter into the eighth. In mid-July, it was Wareham’s turn — Brewster tied it with two outs in the eighth. They’ve danced with disaster more than once.

So when Harwich jumped ahead early and Brewster’s bats stayed silent, that familiar dread crept in. The offense had scored seven-plus in four of six games — it felt like they’d turned a corner. But by the ninth, with the hit column still frozen at zero, the mood was undeniable. The Cape hadn’t seen a no-hitter in three years. Harwich was inches away. Then came Carson Tinney (Texas), who finally broke the silence with a solo homer to left — a small victory in a long night. Brewster (21-17-1) avoided infamy, but not the loss. Harwich (21-15-3) rolled, 7-1, handing the Whitecaps another low in a season full of extremes.

“We just didn't come to play,” interim head coach John Schiffner said. “I could tell in the early part, they were just kind of loosey-goosey, and that happens. It’s the kids. They’re 19-, 20-, 21-year-old kids … it's baseball, you know? Some days you're ready to go. Some days you're not. Some days the pitcher is really on. Baseball’s such a funny game.”

Though Brewster escaped with something resembling a moral victory, about 90% of this game was forgettable. As head coach Jamie Shevchik has said all season, Brewster lives and dies with its starting pitching — and on Saturday, things went south from the jump.

Matthew Jenkins (Florida) got the start. It’s been a rocky summer, mostly out of the bullpen, but Shevchik has long preached confidence through opportunity — letting guys pitch through struggles to show belief in their long-term value. That philosophy earned Jenkins the nod.

But trouble came quick. A two-out double in the first set up Harwich’s opening run, as Jenkins left a 1-1 pitch over the plate for an RBI single. In the second, the spiral accelerated — back-to-back walks and a wild pitch put two runners in scoring position, and a single made it 2-0 with nobody out.

Jenkins nearly salvaged it — a flyout, a strikeout, one out away from escaping. But a hit-by-pitch loaded the bases, and then it unraveled. Two wild pitches brought in two more runs. An eight-pitch walk was the final straw. With the score now 4-0, Schiffner — filling in after Shevchik’s ejection the night before — made the switch, calling on Mitch Dye (Illinois) to stop the bleeding.

While the pitching struggled early, Brewster’s offense never found its footing. They didn’t send a fourth batter to the plate in an inning until the sixth. The lone baserunner through five? A Dalton Wentz (Wake Forest) walk in the fourth — erased immediately by a Brendan Lawson (Florida) double play that made it feel like nothing happened at all.

On the mound for Harwich was Pierce Friedman (Maine), making his first Cape League start — a late-season chance that turned into a statement. He kept Brewster off balance from pitch one, inducing weak contact and quiet outs. By the fifth, glances started going to the scoreboard: no hits, no noise — something special might be brewing.

“Sometimes you can criticize the team because they got no-hit, but that kid (Friedman) pitched great,” Schiffner said. “They made some nice defensive plays behind him, too. Sometimes we don't give credit to the right person. He deserves more credit for his pitching than we do for our lack of hitting.”

To their credit, Brewster’s bullpen kept it within reach. Mitch Dye (Illinois) struck out five across 2 1/3 innings, including the side in the third and one more to start the fourth — four straight in all. Kyle Kipp (Boston College) followed with two more scoreless frames, stretching his season to 17 1/3 innings without an earned run. With one game left, he’s on the verge of finishing the summer with a perfect ERA.

But the margin for error was razor-thin, and in the seventh, it gave out. Landon O’Donnell (State College of Florida) was called on to carry the torch but quickly found himself in the same mess that undid Jenkins — a walk, a single, another walk to load the bases. No outs. A jam that demanded a strikeout or soft contact.

He nearly got it. A pop out, then a strikeout — two down. But on the next pitch, Ryan Gerety (Northeastern) ripped a triple down the right field line, clearing the bases and delivering the knockout blow. Harwich now led 7-0 — a gap that felt insurmountable with how quiet Brewster had been.

Just a half-inning earlier, Brewster had finally chased Friedman with a walk, bringing in Cohen Feser (TCU) to preserve the no-hitter. And through the seventh and eighth, he did — a flyout, then three quick outs. Now, heading to the ninth, Harwich was just three outs away from its first no-hitter in six years.

Tinney led off. After a slow start to the season, the Texas backstop had found his swing — especially his power, entering with seven extra-base hits. On a 1-1 pitch, he nearly broke it up, sending a deep drive that hooked just foul. Harwich sighed in relief. Still intact.

Just a few weeks ago, Alex Sosa (Miami) had a similar moment — foul-pole miss, then a home run a few pitches later. A "not this time" swing. Tinney must’ve felt the same way. With the Brewster dugout suddenly alive, trying to inject life into a dead night, Tinney delivered — this time for real. A no-doubt blast to left. Fair. Far. Gone.

The no-hitter was dead. Brewster was on the board. No history for Harwich — and no humiliation for Brewster.

“It was good for (Tinney). Who wants to get no-hit?” Schiffner said. “... I'm sure some people walked away going, ‘Yay,’ and I'm sitting there, ‘Yeah, wait.’ I mean, we only got one hit. But it was tough — it was a very tough game for us, the coaches, and everybody else.”

Title photo credit: Casey Bayne.