Through the first 24 games of the season, the Whitecaps have shown glimpses of their potential. They can hit the home run ball. They can play strong defense. And they’ve had several impressive outings from their pitching staff.
But, even in wins, Brewster has struggled to string those things together on a consistent basis.
There have been games like Friday’s 9-6 loss to Chatham, when the Whitecaps offense erased an early four-run deficit with a five-run burst at the plate, only to fall behind again in the later innings. Then there have been games like Thursday’s 2-2 tie with Yarmouth Dennis, when Brewster’s pitching shut down one of the best offenses in the league, only to have its bats run ice cold.
But in Saturday’s seven-inning 11-0 rout of Wareham (15-8-1) at Clem Spillane Field, the Whitecaps (10-13-1) put it all together.
The offense was outstanding: four home runs, 19 hits and seven different players with a multi-hit game. But the pitching was just as impressive, limiting one of the best offenses in the league to no runs and just four hits.
“We all know the potential, it’s just which team shows up every day,” Whitecaps manager Jamie Shevchik said postgame. “Baseball is really hard. Guys start to get tired and start grinding it out, they need a little bit of a change of pace. Today basically resets everything.”
With every other game in the Cape Cod Baseball League canceled due to rain, the win becomes even more important. The result gives the third-place Whitecaps a half game of insurance over fourth-place Harwich, and it brings Brewster a half game closer to second-place Chatham.
“To get a win on this day, with everybody else in, especially coming out to Wareham, I feel like I haven’t won out here in four years, but it was good,” Shevchik added.
The Whitecaps jumped in front in the first after putting runners on the corners with one out. Third baseman Daniel Cuvet (Miami) cashed in on the opportunity, lofting a sacrifice fly to right to score Dallas Macias (Oregon State), who reached on a leadoff single.
A third-inning power surge provided some insurance. Designated hitter Ryder Helfrick (Arkansas) crushed a two-run home run into the left field bleachers after Macias got on base with a single.
Helfrick is now tied for the league lead with eight home runs and leads the Cape in RBI with 29. As he rounded third on his home run trot, he just shrugged at third base coach Scott Grimes, as if to say, ‘I can’t explain it either.’
Cuvet launched a solo shot to right-center to make it 4-0 two batters later, marking the second time in as many days that both Helfrick and Cuvet homered on the same night.
Shortstop Drew Faurot (Florida State) joined the home run party in the top of the fourth, launching a three-run shot to right field with Max Kaufer (South Carolina) and Blake Binderup (Texas A&M) both on base. It was the first career CCBL homer for Faurot, who spent last summer with Orleans.
“Drew has been in a little bit of a funk, so to see him come up with a home run and then a double and see him smile, that’s what I want to see. I want to see now that kid’s got a little bit more confidence that he can play this game, and play here.”
Faurot’s aforementioned double came in the sixth inning, kicking off yet another offensive burst from the Whitecaps. Macias followed it up with a base hit, and Helfrick drove them both home with a double into the left field gap to make it 9-0.
Cuvet cranked his second homer of the evening to make it 10, marking his sixth big fly of the season and fourth in the past week. He’s been on a tear since returning from Team USA on July 4, hitting four of his five homers in that window.
Macias made it 11-0 in the top of the seventh with an RBI single, marking his fourth hit of the evening.
That run support was more than enough for starter Ryan Ure (Oklahoma State) and the Whitecaps bullpen, which kept the Wareham bats silent from first pitch to last. Ure kicked things off with three shutout innings, limiting the Gatemen to two hits and striking out three. The outing solidified his final stat line for the summer: 9 1/3 innings with a 2.89 ERA and eight strikeouts.
“I think he upped his stock,” Shevchik said. “Coming out and pitching when he didn’t get a whole lot of opportunities at Oklahoma State, I think he solidified himself as a draft pick. He probably made himself a little bit more money by being here.”
Luke Guth (Vanderbilt) replaced Ure to toss a scoreless fourth, and Colby Frieda (Kentucky) made his Brewster debut in the fifth, using just eight pitches to toss a 1-2-3 frame in his first inning of work.
Frieda, who the Whitecaps added on Thursday, stayed on to pitch two more scoreless innings to close out the win.
“I think he can stay,” Shevchik said with a smile. “When he came off the mound, I said, ‘I think you can stay.’ He just pounded the zone with three competitive pitches, and when I say competitive pitches, pitches that were very uncomfortable for those guys. It was really good and that’s going to be a big pickup for us moving forward.”
The win also marks the second time Brewster has run-ruled Wareham this season, a remarkable feat considering the Gatemen’s 15-8-1 record.
“This is exactly what we needed,” Shevchik said. “We got to double-digit wins, we’re inching closer to that .500 mark. Today was a much-needed win.”
Title photo credit: Julianne Shivers.
