YARMOUTH, Mass. — After Friday’s 14-0 win over Bourne, which improved Brewster to a franchise-best 6-0 start, head coach Jamie Shevchik was quick to temper expectations: “This isn’t going to last forever. This game is too hard, and this league is too good to sustain this.”

While a dominant 14-0 victory can make anyone feel invincible, and some may have thought Brewster was unbeatable, Shevchik — a seasoned coach — understands the Cape Cod League’s highs and lows. He knows how impressive it is that this group of new players, playing together for the first time, already looks like a well-oiled machine with the chemistry of lifelong teammates. Still, he knew a setback was coming eventually. He just didn’t expect it to arrive the very next day.

That reality hit hard and fast, delivering the kind of gut punch that tends to follow a red-hot start — a reminder that in the Cape, even the best can be brought back down to earth fast.

The normally lively and vocal Whitecaps were quieted by Yarmouth-Dennis’s dominant pitching, held without a hit through seven innings. Chris Hacopian (Texas A&M) delivered the biggest swing of the night — a three-run homer in the sixth that gave Y-D (4-2, 4-1 Eastern Division) all the breathing room it needed. Brewster (6-1, 1-1 Eastern Division) finally broke through late, but the damage was done. Brewster’s undefeated run ended with a 3-0 loss to Y-D.

“It was like a low-energy day,” Shevchik said. “Late last night, a lot of runs, a lot of walks. Guys had an early morning camp today. Listen, that's not an excuse at all. It just felt like there was a low energy day today. And think about it, we gave up one (big) hit, right? I mean, one hit that really cost us. But the big thing is, how do we respond tomorrow?”

The story of the day was Y-D’s dominant pitching — and just as much, Brewster’s complete lack of offense, a jarring reversal from the night before when the Whitecaps scored in every inning but one during a mercy-rule win.

Brady Hamilton (Wichita State) set the tone with four hitless innings to open the game. He didn’t overpower Brewster but didn’t need to — pounding the zone, pitching to weak contact, and letting his defense work behind him.

His counterpart, Tegan Kuhns, making his Whitecaps debut, looked electric in his own right. The right-hander touched 94 mph with a fastball that audibly popped into Carson Tinney’s glove and struck out six over four scoreless innings, flashing the kind of stuff that could anchor Brewster’s rotation moving forward.

“I think what was working best for me was first-pitch heaters, getting ahead in counts,” Kuhns said. “And then I just buried the guys after that.”

Brewster appeared to have a chance once Hamilton exited, having run his pitch count to 71 through four. However, reliever Tyler Pitzer picked up right where Hamilton left off. He struck out the side in the fifth, stranded a runner in scoring position, and punched out two more in the sixth. As the outs piled up and Brewster’s hit column stayed empty, a quiet tension settled over the ballpark — the no-hit bid was real, and Y-D wasn’t letting up.

“Their pitching was good, and we barreled up a couple baseballs. Couldn't get anything to fall, couldn't get anything moving,” Shevchik said. “We just couldn't muster anything. Just a very stale day.”

After Kuhns exited, Brewster turned to Camden Wimbish — their own “hit stopper” against the dominant arms keeping them scoreless. Wimbish, fresh off 3.1 no-hit innings against Hyannis, started strong. He gave up a single in his first frame but stayed composed, and catcher Carson Tinney quickly erased the threat, throwing out Andrew Soldra (Seton Hall) at second for his second caught stealing of the night.

The next inning, Yarmouth-Dennis finally cracked the door open. Back-to-back singles put runners on the corners, and suddenly, Wimbish and the Whitecaps were staring down real trouble for the first time all night.

Up stepped Chris Hacopian — the newly committed Texas A&M Aggie, just a day removed from announcing his transfer. Coming off a monster season at Maryland, he was primed to show the Aggies they’d made the right call.

Wimbish had just struck out Will Baker (Georgia Tech) in the previous at-bat, and another K might’ve pulled him out of danger. But as Brewster manager Shevchik noted afterward, Hacopian was “sitting fastball.”

He got exactly what he wanted — a middle-middle heater — and didn’t miss. The ball rocketed deep to left, a three-run shot that shattered the deadlock and sucked the life out of Brewster’s dugout.

“A really good player put a really good swing on a really good pitch,” Shevchik said. “It's almost like he knew it was coming.”

Despite not recording their first hit until the eighth inning, Brewster still managed to threaten early, putting runners in scoring position three times over the first five frames. Josiah Ragsdale (Boston College) was in the middle of two of those chances, drawing a pair of walks and swiping second both times.

His Cape League–leading 10th stolen base, with just one caught stealing all season, only cemented his status as one of the league’s most disruptive baserunners.

When Ragsdale finally broke up the no-hitter in the eighth, lacing a double down the right field line, it felt like the script was flipping. The Whitecaps had made a habit of late-game comebacks all season, and now their spark plug was in scoring position, on base for the third time, with the heart of the order coming up.

Then came the emotional jolt. Blake Cyr (Florida) lofted a shallow fly toward the line in right, and Alex Hernandez (Georgia Tech) sprinted in to make an outstanding over-the-shoulder catch. Ragsdale, always aggressive, took the risk and darted for third. Hernandez wheeled and fired a perfect strike across the diamond, cutting him down.

Just like that, Brewster’s first hit — and their best shot at another late-inning rally — was erased in an instant.

For Shevchik, it’s not the single loss that concerns him — it’s what comes after. Last season, setbacks like this snowballed, turning into prolonged slumps that were hard to shake. “Once you get into that rut, it's really hard to get out of it,” Shevchik said. So the focus isn’t on perfection — it’s on containment. Losses are inevitable in a 40-game Cape League season, even after a stretch where the Whitecaps looked nearly unstoppable.

“Over 40 games in a regular season, you're going to have some up and down games, right?” Shevchik said. “...This is baseball, the worst team in the league beats the best team in the league a lot. There's some really good players out here. We just have to flush it and get back to business and focus tomorrow.”

Title photo credit: Kayla McCullough