With his starter nearing close to 80 pitches on a hot Sunday afternoon in Harwich, pitching coach Eric Luksis took a stroll to the mound for a chat with right-hander Griffin O’Connor (Georgetown).

What was anticipated to be a congratulatory handshake and pat on the back for O’Connor, to tell him his day was finished, quickly turned into a conversation that encapsulates the Wareham Gatemen’s season in a nutshell.

“I told him, ‘There’s no way you're taking this ball from me. Let me finish it,’” O’Connor recalled. “Then I said, 'I got this guy, I'm ready to go.’ And he gave me that chance.”

O’Connor did just that, forcing an infield pop out to end the inning and beat his chest to finish a second consecutive stellar performance, earning the win in a 6-3 Gatemen victory over the Harwich Mariners (9-15) at Whitehouse Field to move to 16-8-1 on the season.

The newly committed Hoya tossed four innings, giving up just one run (counted as a triple after right fielder Jace Rinehart lost a fly ball in the sun), collecting three strikeouts and leaving with a 1.86 ERA in 9 ⅔ innings in just the 10 days he’s been with the team.

O’Connor’s exchange with Luksis standing his ground to finish the inning is a prime example of the grit this team has, sitting atop the West Division of the CCBL.

Their blue-collar mentality, dubbed as a “mobbism” in the clubhouse, to control what you can and make no excuses is what’s carrying them throughout a long summer grind.

Even just a week-and-a-half in, O’Connor is fully bought into the mobbism to compete.

“Coming from a Division II school with a lot of Power Five guys, I always play with a chip on my shoulder,” he said. “Before every start I remind myself that I belong here even though I wasn’t at the prettiest, biggest school compared to other guys.”

However, he belonged since Day 1, tossing 5 2/3 innings of one-run baseball against a star-studded Yarmouth-Dennis lineup with the likes of Drew Burress (Georgia Tech & National FPOY) and Ethan Petry (South Carolina), leading the Gatemen to a dominant 7-3 win.

Not just playing with a chip, but also having short-term memory is key to having success on the Cape. After dropping a game to Brewster, 11-0, on Saturday, Wareham needed just that.

First baseman Eli Putnam (Davidson) saw his routine finally pay off and into fruition on Sunday with a two-run go-ahead homer putting the Gatemen up 4-1 in the fourth inning, his first in three weeks.

“It's a testament to the work that we put in every day whether it's in early work or batting practice," he said. "I focused today on having a good disciplined head [for seeing the ball] and it paid off instantly in the game.”

Putnam has some of the most fluid raw power at the first base position you’ll ever see on the Cape, and when he finds a groove it’s lethal.

Putnam went 2-for-4 withs five RBI including an RBI triple lined backside on a 3-2 count to plate Murf Gray (Fresno State) and be the offensive spark.

“We’re one of the best offenses in the league for a reason top to bottom,” Putnam pointed out. The Gatemen are now slashing a league-best .271 average with 52 doubles and 15 more hits (226) than the next highest team (Hyannis, 213).

Other Gatemen hitters dazzled in the win as well, with Gray going 2-for-4, pushing his average on the season to .345. Catcher Jacob Jarrell (Clemson) got ahold of a homer too with a solo blast to right-center field (second home run).

Rinehart (West Virginia) collected two hits right behind Putnam to finish off his 2-for-3 night.

Soon to be Rinehart’s teammate and establish Mountaineer for the Gatemen in White certainly entertained. First, a diving catch over the shoulder saved a pair of runs in the first, but the second catch was highlight worthy. With bases loaded in the sixth, a line drive to left-center field was smoked out toward the grass when a superman version of White took over for a complete full-body dive to steal another hit and save two more runs in the game.

“That's the type of guys we want,” manager Ryan Smyth said. “ We want the guys that want the ball, want every moment and every pitch. That's what we got tonight.”

Top photo caption: (Left to right) Sam White, Reese Chapman and Brendan Summerhill celebrate following a 6-3 win over the Harwich Mariners at Whitehouse Field on July 14, 2024. Photo by Kyler Armstrong.