A rally into extra innings, when outfielder Kyle Schwarber hit a two-run homer to break a 5-5 tie against the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox, led the Wareham Gatemen to their first Cape Cod Baseball League Championship title in 10 years.

Friday's final score was 8-6, but the game was a nail-biter — scoreless until the 4th inning, and after, the only Gatemen runs scored were the result of home runs.

"We did it in dramatics," Gatemen Head Coach Cooper Farris noted. "I'm so proud for the guys, the community, and the organization."

Gatemen pitcher Fred Shepard held back the Red Sox until the 4th, when a Y-D homer out of Red Wilson Field in South Yarmouth put two runs on the scoreboard.

But Gateman catcher Tyler Ross knocked one out of the park for a two-run homer in the 5th, tying the game, 2-2.

The game remained tied until the 7th, when Y-D scored another run, making the score 3-2. The Red Sox got another two-run homer in the 8th, putting Y-D up by 3 runs.

And then the rally began.

A top-of-the-9th home run by Schwarber inched the score to 5-3, and the Gatemen rally monkey made his first appearance of the season. (Wareham Week is told that the monkey's name is Darwin, and his keeper may be Tyler Ross...)

Darwin the Rally Monkey worked.

Gateman shortstop Mott Hyde knocked a home run out of the park, tying the score 5-5, and the Gatemen defense kept the Red Sox from breaking that tie in the bottom of the 9th, pushing the game into extra innings.

In the 10th, Schwarber's two-run home run kicked off the Gatemen success, while third-baseman Tyler Horan added another homer for good measure.

Though Y-D added another home run in the bottom of the 10th, Gateman pitcher Colby Suggs wouldn't let the Red Sox close his team's lead any further.

And then the Gatemen were champions.

Schwarber was named the MVP of the championship, but was humble.

"It's a great accomplishment," he noted, "but I couldn't do it without my team. All the credit goes to them."

Of his game-changing home run in the 10th, Schwarber simply said: "I got good wood on it and kept saying, 'Get up! Get up! Get up!'"

And it did.

"It's a great honor," Ross, who was responsible for the 5th inning home run, said of the big win.

Ross is a veteran Gateman, having played the 2011 season as well.

"It's been a great experience playing here for the past two years," Ross said. "Great coaches. Great players."

Horan takes home more than just the satisfaction of a championship win. A Middleborough native, Horan now has local bragging rights.

"It's amazing," Horan said of the win, before adding with a grin: "I get to go home and brag to my friends!"

Though the game was a nerve-wracker for most fans, some just sensed that this was the year for the Gatemen.

"I always knew they were going to win," said Patty Wylde, wife of longtime Gatemen president and game announcer John Wylde, who passed away in 2009 after a battle with cancer.

Wylde explained that there was just something at the beginning of the season that told her that this was a special group of players.

The Gatemen's 5-1 loss in the second game of the series, Wylde said, was simply a learning experience. The boys came back ready to win.

"John always wanted this to be a learning experience," Wylde said with a smile.

Pam Blanchard, who, along with her husband Al, coordinates the meals at the field for the team on game days, agreed.

"Patty and I both had a feeling about this team," Blanchard said. "They were special. They worked so hard."

Gatemen president Tom Gay called the team "a great group of guys who just never gave up."

"It was a roller-coaster ride, but it all came out the way we knew it would come out," Gay said of the season. "We knew we had the talent."