Chatham, Mass. — Patrick Mathis came to bat with two outs in the bottom of the ninth – his team trailing 7-5. The Anglers, in the midst of a late-game comeback, had rallied for two runs in the inning and now had the tying run on second base and arguably their best hitter at the plate. With a full count, Mathis chased a pitch up high for the final out of the ballgame, giving the Bourne Braves a 7-5 win over the Chatham Anglers.

“You’ve seen us play extremely good games, and then the next night we don’t play well,” manager John Schiffner said. “Tonight we did not play horrible – we’ve played horrible on a number of nights – but we did not play well tonight.”

Chatham (11-15-1) squandered an early 3-0 lead after watching Bourne hitters tag starter Lincoln Henzman (1-2) for five runs between the fourth and the sixth.

The majority of the damage came off of a Danny Reyes three-run homerun in the fourth inning. With Connor Wong working a two out walk, the Braves (13-13-1) had runners on first and second for Reyes, who launched a no-doubter to centerfield on the next pitch.

Bourne’s offense continued to grind out hits against Henzman, scoring twice over the next two frames before adding a pair of insurance runs off of singles in the ninth.

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 “We didn’t get things done today,” Schiffner said. “We didn’t cover a base, we should have caught a couple balls that we didn’t, and you can’t give the other team more bases.”

While the Anglers’ pitching staff allowed seven runs on the night, the contest was far from a blowout as Chatham held an early lead and came a swing away from winning in the ninth.

The second and third innings gave Chatham reasons for optimism thanks to home runs by John Aiello and Hagan Owenby. Aiello, a Wake Forest product, entered the contest hitless since July 4, but quickly erased that statistic as the infielder powered a second-inning JT Perez pitch over the wall in right field.

“I just stayed within my approach, looking for the fastball away from [Perez],” Aiello said beaming. “It felt great.”

Owenby got in on the homerun action in the bottom of the next frame, crushing the first pitch he saw just over the 357 sign in right-center.

The Anglers once again showed their competitiveness by rallying in the ninth, trailing by four. Three consecutive singles brought home Sean Bouchard, who worked a five-pitch walk to become the first base runner of the inning. Orlando Garcia would come around a few plays later after Jake Palomaki broke up a double play by reaching on a fielder’s choice.

“They battled back, obviously. We had the winning runs on,” Schiffner said. “They’ve been doing that the past few weeks.”

Chatham has now lost three of its last four, its last win coming on July 6 against the Wareham Gatemen. The loss keeps the Anglers in a tie for last place in the East Division while Bourne leapfrogs Wareham for the second spot in the West.