The Anglers almost had the routine nailed down. Starter Max Tishman (Wake Forest) threw five strong innings, the offense scratched across four runs in three different frames and Lou Distasio (Rhode Island) — like he has all season — was making quick work of the opposition. 

But Distasio threw one pitch that put an unwelcome variable in the formula. 

“That’s just baseball,” Tishman said. “It happens, we just pick up from it and get the next one.”

Chatham (7-8-1) was holding onto a two-run lead in the seventh inning until Wade Wass’ three-run home run flipped the scoreboard in Brewster’s (7-9) favor. The Whitecaps eventually won the game 5-4 at Stony Brook Field on Saturday night with Wass’ blast — which landed in the woods beyond the left-field fence — holding on as the decisive blow. Chatham and Brewster are now 1-1 on the summer series. 

Box Score:

Game Tracker

Distasio received the loss after giving up those three runs in the seventh, which were the first runs he gave up on the season. Whitecaps’ reliever Andrew Naderer first came on for starter Andrew Lee, and gave up one run in three innings of work to nab the win. And Evan Hill only earned the save when he got Jake Fraley (LSU) to groundout with the tying run on third and go-ahead run at second. 

“They fought until the end like they have been,” Anglers manager John Schiffner said. “To have guys on second and third at the end is what you want, sometimes it goes your way and sometimes it doesn’t. But that’s what you want.”

Tishman worked himself into small jams throughout the five innings he threw, but held off the Whitecaps while his team mounted an early lead. The Anglers started the scoring on an RBI single by Landon Cray (Seattle) in the second, which was only part of his all-encompassing day. Cray's first hit came with two strikes and two outs, and it was his bat — which he craned over the plate — that did all the work. He flicked one of Lee’s fastballs into centerfield and Landon Lassiter (North Carolina) was barreling down the third-base line moments later.

Then he singled and later scored in the fifth. And when he dodged a double play by legging out a groundball in the sixth, Lassiter crossed the plate again. 

“I just took my same plate approach,” Cray said. “Just trying to get on base and seeing what happens from there. Trying to make things happen.”

But even with Cray using a bevy of tools to build Chatham’s lead, Brewster didn’t let the visitors of its sights. While the Anglers sprinkled runs into the second, fifth and six innings, the Whitecaps tallied in the fourth and fifth against the battling Tishman. He was able to use his breaking ball to keep hitters off balance, and thought after the game that he and the Brewster lineup traded small wins. 

“I am a competitor and I like working out of jams,” Tishman said. “I think they got me a little a few times but I was able to get out of most of the situations I created.”

Schiffner was plain in his assessment of his team’s second straight loss. He said that they left too many runners on, hinting at the two occasions that Chatham left the bases loaded and squandered chances to add to its lead. Then he referenced a few plays that he classified as errors even if the final box score didn’t, which gave Brewster extra base runners and extra scoring chancs. 

With cleaner play in the earlier innings, Wass’ home run could have simply made the game competitive. Instead it decided it. 

“We do the small things and we’re fine,” Schiffner said. “Which means we’re fine.”

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