ORLEANS — The Orleans Firebirds got a taste of bad summer weather on the Cape last week. Their July 8 game was called after the sixth inning because of an immense fog bank rolling in at McKeon Park in Hyannis, but Orleans took home an 11-6 victory over the Harbor Hawks.
Then the Firebirds’ games on July 9 and 10 against the Brewster Whitecaps and Falmouth Commodores were canceled due to bad weather and field conditions.
On Sunday, the Birds finally got back on the field with a game at Red Wilson Field in Yarmouth against the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox. They fell behind early, couldn’t regain momentum, and lost 6-2, dropping to 7-6-2 on the season.
The Birds again found themselves on the losing end of a 1-0 game against the Falmouth Commodores on Monday night.
The game was one of the better pitching efforts from the Birds, with Dawson Netz (U. of Arizona) and Hayden Thomas (Texas A&M-Corpus Christi) combining to pitch five scoreless innings with seven strikeouts. But the Commodores eked out a run on a grounder in the bottom of the seventh, which turned out to be the decisive margin.
The Firebirds managed to get runners on first and third base in the top of the ninth, and it looked like some late-game heroics might be in store. But Orleans’s Julio Marcano (New Jersey Institute of Technology) couldn’t connect at the plate and recorded the final out of the game.
With a record of 7-7-2, the team fell to second-to-last in the East Division. The Birds were scheduled to play at home against Falmouth on Tuesday and another home game is set for Saturday, July 17 against the Y-D Red Sox.
With two game cancellations, Orleans outfielder Chase DeLauter (James Madison University) allowed Lyle Miller-Green (George Mason University) of the Chatham Anglers to tie his league lead in home runs at six.
