Baseball games are nine innings, but it only takes a couple to make all the difference in an end result. One or two good — or bad — innings can change the course of the night, especially in a league like the Cape Cod Baseball League, where every team is full of talent that can quickly feed off itself.

In Wareham’s 12-5 loss to Hyannis on Friday night, the Harbor Hawks only needed two big innings to set the tone for the night and keep the Gatemen down. A four-run top of the first and a six-run top of the fourth — with two more runs coming in between — put the Harbor Hawks in a position so comfortable that it didn’t matter that the Gatemen bullpen put up five scoreless innings to close out the game.

“They just got us on two tough innings,” manager Ryan Smyth said. “We made a lot of errors in those two innings, a lot of walks, got behind in counts. And that’s what teams are going to do out here.”

Hyannis batters weren’t afraid to keep the bat on their shoulders if they didn’t see pitches they liked, and when that mindset met a Wareham pitching staff that struggled to hit its spots it ended in a lot of movement on the basepaths. The Gatemen allowed a total of 10 walks on the night, and seven of those baserunners came around to cross home plate. Time and time again, the Harbor Hawks stayed patient at the plate and put multiple runners on base, then knocked a base hit or took advantage of a Gatemen miscue to bring a run around.

Wareham starter Cole Leaman (Lehigh) only pitched one complete inning before he was taken out, allowing four walks and four runs on just two hits. Unfortunately, that put the Gatemen at a disadvantage almost immediately.

“It’s hard when you’re down early,” Smyth said. “It puts a lot of pressure on the hitters to constantly keep fighting back.”

The Gatemen tried their best to get back in the game, putting up five runs of their own in the early innings, but couldn’t quite find their rhythm to mount a full rally. Eli Putnam (Davidson), Brendan Summerhill (Arizona), Sam White (West Virginia) and Michael Lippe (Louisville) all recorded at least one RBI — Putnam notched two — and multiple Gatemen reached base throughout the night, but no one could crack the Hyannis pitching staff.

The Gatemen ultimately outhit the Hawks, 11-10, but couldn’t capitalize offensively to make much of a difference. Tony Pluta pitched a scoreless fifth inning and Anthony Susac (Arizona) and Gavin Black (Mississippi State) combined for four scoreless innings after that, but it was still a little too late.

Hyannis had sped up the game early and never stepped off the gas, and Wareham never caught up.

“We’ve been speeding the game up on other teams for the past week,” Smyth said. “So it was our turn tonight.”

Wareham’s loss marked the end of its win streak, which reached six straight games for the first time since 2016. It was just Wareham’s third loss of the season, but all three losses have been substantial. The seven-run loss was the smallest margin of defeat the Gatemen have suffered all summer. The beauty of the Cape League, however, is that the Gatemen have a chance to bounce back immediately. And even though they lost, they are able to still learn from the game and walk away with optimism.

Wareham used six pitchers in Friday’s game, which could very well limit the bullpen for the next few days. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t players who are ready and willing to still give it their all.

“These guys want to pitch,” Smyth said. “Guys were even offering, ‘Hey, if we need an inning, I got you tonight.’ So that’s reassuring that these guys do want to throw.”

Smyth doesn’t need to ask his pitchers to throw, and he doesn’t even really need to talk to his players after a loss like Friday’s.

“I don’t think there’s anything that I’ve got to tell them that they don’t already know,” he said. “There are obvious things that hurt us tonight, and we’ll get better at it and we’ll get back at it again tomorrow.”

Top photo credit: Tony Pluta pitches in Wareham's 12-5 loss to the Hyannis Harbor Hawks, June 28, 2024, at Spillane Field. Photo by Kyler Armstrong.