By: Finn Riley
Brewster, M.A. 一 On Thursday, the Whitecaps suffered an ugly loss to the Harwich Mariners by a score of 7-3, Brewster now falls below the .500 mark.
The driving force behind the Whitecaps’ defeat was the poor defensive display, as they recorded five errors on the day.
The major turn in momentum came in the top of the seventh inning, where two Mariners’ runs scored on a two-out dropped pop-up to shallow centerfield, giving the Mariners a 4-3 lead which they would add to in the eighth inning.
Three of the seven Mariners’ runs were unearned, with pitchers Ryan Ure (Oklahoma State) and Najer Victor (UCF) taking the brunt of the defensive mistakes.
However, Ure and Victor pitched a combined seven innings totaling seven strikeouts and allowing just one earned run.
Ure made his longest start of the summer as he went five innings and knocked his earned run average down to 2.11.
After the game, Pitching Coach Jason Rathbun explained how important it is for Ure to be comfortable with pitching longer innings.
“We want him to gain more confidence every time out because his stuff’s there […] Ryan’s got a bright future we want to get him as much confidence as possible as the summer goes on because we think at the end of the year he’ll be really important for us.”
Coach Rathbun also praised newcomer Najer Victor in his first outing as a Whitecap.
“I thought Najer did a really good job out there, he showed some electric stuff and had some good movement. […] I think after the all-star break that’s a guy we definitely look to put in the rotation and extend him a little bit.”
This Spring, Victor recorded 44 strikeouts over 37⅓ innings for the FGCU Eagles, and is looking to become an important part of this Whitecaps rotation.
On the offensive side of the ball, all three Brewster runs came on a pair of doubles from Cam Fisher (UNC Charlotte) and Kurtis Byrne (TCU) in the bottom of the third inning.
The Whitecaps were then unable to push across any more runs in the remaining five innings of play.
On Friday, the Whitecaps head to McKeon Park to take on the first-place Hyannis Harbor Hawks, starting at 6:00 pm.