ORLEANS — The Firebirds opened the centennial Cape Cod Baseball League season on Saturday with an impressive win over the Hyannis Harbor Hawks. As of Tuesday, the team was 2-1, tied for the East Division lead with Harwich.
The CCBL is the premier collegiate summer baseball league in the country. It officially formed in 1923 but traces its roots back to 1885. The 10-team league features some of the top collegiate prospects representing all NCAA college divisions. The Firebirds play at Eldredge Park on Route 28, adjacent to the Nauset Regional Middle School.
Firebirds 4, Harbor Hawks 1
Orleans opened the 2023 Cape Cod Baseball League season with a strong performance at Hyannis’s McKeon Park on Saturday, June 10.
The Firebirds scored two runs in the top of the third inning when Jake Hyde (Georgetown) delivered a single up the middle to drive in Jack Penny (Notre Dame). JD Urso (University of Tampa) crossed home plate on an error by the Hyannis second baseman.
The Harbor Hawks got back within one run in the fourth before Firebirds pitching produced four scoreless innings. Orleans tacked on two runs in the top of the ninth, with Eddie King (Louisville) scoring from first on an error, to put the game out of reach.
Daniel Avitia (Grand Canyon) pitched four innings for Orleans, allowing three hits, one unearned run, and a walk. He struck out six. Sean Matson (Harvard) picked up the win as he went two innings and allowed no hits or runs and struck out two. Penny, meanwhile, went 1 for 2 at the plate, scored a run, drove in another, and reached base on a walk.
Hyannis starting pitcher Mitch Farris of Wingate University lasted 3 1/3 innings, allowing three hits, two earned runs, and two walks to go with six strikeouts.
Mariners 10, Firebirds 3
Orleans dropped a 10-3 decision to Harwich in its home opener on Sunday, June 11 at Eldredge Park. The Mariners built a 3-0 lead by the fourth inning before the Firebirds got within a run thanks to a two-run homer off the bat of Eddie Micheletti Jr. (George Washington) in the bottom of the sixth. Harwich extended its advantage to 6-2 and then added four more runs in the final frame. Orleans’s Jake Casey (Kent State) hit a solo home run on a 2-1 pitch in the bottom of the eighth, but by then the damage had been done.
Cam Leiter (Central Florida) went four innings for the Firebirds, allowing three hits, three earned runs, and four walks to go with one strikeout. Micheletti was 2 for 4 at the plate with two RBIs in the loss.
Tim Noone (Babson) had a strong start for the Mariners, giving up just two hits in four innings pitched. Georgia’s Chandler Marsh was the winning pitcher.
Firebirds 6, Braves 4
Orleans picked up an early-season victory over last year’s league champions, the Bourne Braves, to get back into the win column on Monday, June 12.
The Firebirds posted all six of their runs in the third inning en route to beating the Braves 6-4. Johnny Olmstead (Southern California) capped off the inning with a three-run home run off Matthew Marchal (Wofford). Bourne had taken a 3-0 lead with two homers in the top of the third. They added one run in the top of the fifth before Derek Clark (Northwood) came on in relief and earned the win, pitching four scoreless innings and giving up just three hits in the process. He had four strikeouts.
Jake Peppers (Jacksonville State) went 4 1/3 innings for the Firebirds, giving up five hits, four earned runs, and two walks with two strikeouts. Fenwick Trimble (James Madison), meanwhile, went 2 for 3, including a double and an RBI. Austin Overn (Southern California) was 2 for 4 from the lead-off spot. He scored on an error by the third baseman in the decisive third inning.
