Chatham, Mass. 一 Wareham was in a wire-to-wire defensive battle against Chatham, a lineup that sits third in the entire Cape League with 111 runs scored.
While Peyton Lee (Arkansas) received a loss in his fourth start for allowing three earned runs, his five strikeouts一and the Gatemen staff’s 12 K’s on the night一went unnoticed with the loss. Lee only allowed four hits against an excellent Anglers lineup, and contained their 2nd-inning rally by stranding two men in scoring position.
Lee’s Razorback teammate, Mark Brissey, took over from there with three strong frames: he only allowed a single score against 12 batters. Brissey also posted six strikeouts to just two free passes and now hosts a 1.78 strikeout-to-walk ratio. Although he had to face the top half of the A’s lineup twice, he kept the score close and competitive to give the bats a chance.
Sahil Patel (Ohio State) came in for his CCBL debut to finish out the night. He only gave up one hit over two innings and only tossed 23 pitches against his six batters. The Gatemen’s arms have been efficient as of late, but Patel faced the minimum number of batters in consecutive frames.
Wareham has only allowed 11 runs in its last three games and its team-ERA has dropped to 4.39. But the Gatemen’s offense has hit a recent slide, leading to those tight losses despite strong performances.
“Defensively, we just got to make plays. Defensively, we've been pretty good as of late. I know that was an issue early on, but we've cleaned that up and feel really confident, or you should feel really confident as a pitcher letting guys put the ball in play,” Gatemen manager Ryan Smyth said. “(We are) Getting ahead and attacking early. And it's not the defense at this point. At this point, it's the offense, and we got to score some runs, and we're just not doing that.”
Only three Gatemen recorded hits tonight. All three players had multiple hits, but Wareham didn’t receive its top-to-bottom lineup production. Henry DiGiorgio (Northeastern) represented the bottom of the lineup with a pair of hits, including a single that put the Gatemen’s potential tying run at the plate, but nobody was able to drive him home. Levi Clark (Tennessee) extended his hit streak to six games, and Coen Niclai (Oregon State) tied the Cape League lead in home runs (4) with a shot over the center field wall to kick off the fourth inning.
Niclai has been one of Wareham’s most reliable bats this summer with his long-ball power and his team-high 14 RBIs.
“We just gave him (Niclai) a day or two off to kind of reset and get the legs back underneath him. He's going to be a big bat for us towards the stretch here, and it was good to see him get right back in there and got a couple barrels and snuck one out of here,” Smyth said. “Actually, he didn't sneak that out. That went out pretty good, but it was good to see. He caught a good game back there. Caught a couple, one new arm, which isn't the easiest thing to do in the world, but did a good job.”
Wareham’s best bats produced, but Chatham held on after a late pitching change with 0.1 of the ninth inning left to secure the win, Despite outhitting the Anglers, the Gatemen just needed a few more runners to secure the edge. But they are back to work less than 24 hours from now, on the road for the second day in a row, to face the Commodores for the third time in 2026.
