SOUTH YARMOUTH, Mass. — Tuesday night’s game at Red Wilson Field was deja vú all over again for the Whitecaps.

It was 30 games ago when an outstanding start from Patrick Forbes was squandered in a 10-inning loss to the Red Sox on Opening Day. Then, 12 days ago, Brewster carried a 2-1 lead into the bottom of the ninth against Y-D before a solo shot tied the game at 2-2.

On Tuesday, in the final regular-season matchup between the teams in South Yarmouth, Brewster entered the ninth inning leading, 3-1, once again using a complete pitching performance to create a late lead. And again, the Whitecaps bullpen couldn’t shut the door.

Down to its final out, Y-D (18-9-2) used a two out-rally and two-run double to steal another win from Brewster, tying, 3-3, with the Whitecaps (12-17-2) after the game was called for darkness after the ninth.

“You got to work really hard to do what we did here today. Get the lead and work even harder to keep the lead,” Brewster manager Jamie Shevchik said postgame. “And we did. Our pitching staff did a really good job today. Right up until the point where we decided to walk two guys with two outs.”

A 3-1 lead in the ninth inning looked to be well-protected as Brewster reliever Kellen Oakes (Oregon State) worked through the eighth in order and recorded the first two outs in the ninth on swinging strikeouts. However, he walked two-hole hitter, Michael Ball (Nevada), bringing up the tying run, Ethan Petry (South Carolina) — a Cape League All-Star starter and the owner of a 1.218 OPS.

Petry walked in a five-pitch at-bat, putting the tying run on first and forcing Shevchik to the bullpen. He turned to Levi Huesman (Vanderbilt) for the final out. On the third pitch of his first at-bat, Anthony Martinez (UC Irvine) sliced a hit down the left field line, scoring both runners.

With the game tied, Brewster intentionally walked a batter before Huesman forced a pop-up to end the ninth, and the game.

“The goal is for Kellan to learn exactly how that played out,” Shevchik said. “He's going to beat himself up about it. He knows exactly what he did wrong. If he gets a chance to do it again, I'm sure he's gonna go back and do something differently.”

Up until the final out, it was a smooth sailing night for the Whitecaps pitching staff. Brewster starter Luke Guth (Vanderbilt) came just feet away from allowing a leadoff home run to Commodores teammate R.J. Austin, but the ball died on the left field warning track. He went on to retire the next two with ease, striking out a batter before forcing a pop out to shortstop to end the frame.

In the second inning, Guth allowed a soft-contact single that dropped in front of right fielder Brody Donay (Florida). But that was all he allowed in the first two innings, keeping batters off-balance and forcing soft contact. But shoddy defense got Guth into some trouble in the third.

It started with an error by first baseman Kaeden Kent (Texas A&M), who was playing in his second game of the season at the position after appearing all season in the middle field. Jackson Chirello (Kennesaw State) reached second on Kent’s mistake and nine-hole hitter Gavin Gallaher (North Carolina) moved him to third on a sacrifice bunt.

Guth hung a breaking ball in his second battle with Austin, who blasted a line drive at 103 mph off the top of the left field fence, scoring Chirello for the night's first run. Guth walked another batter and Austin stole third, but he forced a groundout to second base to leave both runners on base.

The righty allowed a leadoff single to Easton Carmichael (Oklahoma) in the fourth, who advanced to second on a fielder’s choice and third on a wild pitch. He then walked a batter to make it first and third but battled out of another jam, leaving both runners on and finishing the day with just one earned run and four hits through four innings.

His performance kept the Red Sox lineup mostly quiet, but forced the Brewster bullpen to pitch the final five innings. With two walks and 85 pitches, Guth was pulled after four innings for Colby Frieda (Troy).

On the other side, Red Sox pitcher Carson Ballard (Georgia Tech) entered Tuesday’s contest having struck out just five batters in eight innings of work. Though, against the struggling Brewster offense, the right-hander quickly impressed, striking out the first two batters swinging.

Whitecaps center fielder Nick Dumesnil (Cal Baptist) reached on an infield single and stole second base — his league-leading 21st of the summer. Though, Dumesnil was left on as Ballard continued to shove, striking out two more batters.

Ballard continued his success and he retired Brewster on eight pitches in the fifth. But in the sixth, the Whitecaps broke through in a similar fashion to the Red Sox.

J.D. Rogers (Vanderbilt) reached on an error by first baseman Martinez. Then, with two outs, Kent knocked a single to right field, moving Rogers to third.

Third baseman Daniel Cuvet (Miami) hammered an 0-1 pitch to the right field gap, tying the game at 1-1 and moving Kent to third. The next batter, Dumesnil, hammered a pitch to deep right for a double, scoring Kent for the Whitecaps’ first lead.

Cuvet’s go-ahead hit forced Y-D manager Scott Pickler to pull Ballard from the game in favor of Aiden Moffett (Texas). On one of his first pitches of the game, he lost control, allowing Cuvet to score on a wild pitch from third. Colby Shelton (Florida) struck out to end the frame, but the Whitecaps scored three, their most in an inning since July 17 versus Harwich.

Brewster looked to add on in the seventh as the first two batters reached base. But Justin Lee (UCLA), who replaced Moffett, retired the next three batters, carving through batters with filthy curveballs.

With Guth out of the game, Frieda allowed a single to left field in the fifth, but that was all the Whitecaps pitcher would allow. He fell into trouble in the sixth and seventh, allowing two runners to reach both times before working out of trouble and keeping the Red Sox bats at bay.

Oakes entered in the eighth and put the Red Sox lineup away. He did the same in the ninth until the two walks spiraled into two runs. In a game that Brewster led from the top of the sixth and on and the Red Sox went 2-for-12 with runners in scoring position, a result of a tie is all the Whitecaps could muster.

“Hopefully this just pisses them off,” Shevchik said, “enough that they can roll this into the next couple of days.”

Photo credit: Julianne Shivers