ORLEANS — At 8 a.m. last Saturday, welcome signs of summer were visible at Eldredge Park. Despite a lingering chill and under overcast skies, the first blankets and beach chairs of the Firebirds’ 2025 season had appeared on the terraced berm beside the first-base line. They were placed there by dedicated fans eager to reserve prime real estate before the Firebirds’ home opener against the Cotuit Kettleers. The osprey family nestled high atop the left field light stanchion and the colorful, recently installed advertising banners along the outfield fence completed the scene.

With birds, blankets, and banners in place, all that remained was for Orleans’s boys of summer to take the field and perform their baseball magic. And on Saturday evening, in front of 833 fans, they provided magic aplenty as they scored two runs on a two-out infield single in the bottom of the 10th inning by returnee Chris Barr to beat Cotuit, 5-4.

Orleans got off to a slow start as four of the first six batters reached base against Cal Scolari, a righthander from the University of San Diego. The Kettleers scored twice on three hits but, once the frame was over, they managed to scrape together only two more hits against Firebirds’ pitching until the ninth.

The Birds got a run back in their half of the first on a Michael O’Shaughnessy double and a single by catcher Robbie Lavey. Another run in the third tied the game at two, and Orleans took its first lead of the season in the bottom of the seventh when Wake Forest’s Javar Williams scored after singling and stealing a base.

It remained 3-2 until the ninth, when things got real interesting real fast. Orleans hurler Logan Reddemann, who had retired the side in order after entering the game in the eighth, gave up a leadoff single to Kettleers’ right fielder Nolan Stevens. A walk and another single brought pinch hitter Case Sanderson to the plate. He promptly lofted a fly to deep center field to plate Stevens with the tying run.

The Firebirds were retired in order in their half of the ninth and another Kettleer sacrifice fly gave Cotuit the lead going into the bottom half of the 10th.

Abbrie Covarrubias, the second baseman from USC, strode to the plate with two outs, with O’Shaughnessy, who started the inning on second base as the ghost runner, on third after advancing on a groundout. Orleans was down to its last strike, with Covarrubias behind in the count 1-2 before he patiently worked a walk to extend the game. There was nothing patient about Covarrubias after that as he stole second without drawing a throw, putting the winning run at second. Designated hitter Chris Barr, from the U.S. Military Academy, who had entered the game as a pinch hitter in the seventh, grounded sharply up the middle and blazed down the line. The Kettleers’ shortstop, P.J. Moutzourdis, charged the ball and hurried his throw to try to catch the speedy Barr. The throw bounced away from Kettleer first baseman Anderson French, allowing O’Shaughnessy to tie the game. A heads-up Covarrubias saw the ball elude French and raced toward home, diving to score the winning run ahead of the throw. Covarrubias then joined the celebration surrounding Barr, who was credited with an infield single.

The red-headed Barr, who didn’t arrive at the Cape until late Friday night and did not take batting practice before the game, was happy to be back for his second tour with the Firebirds. “I love it here,” he said before commenting on his game-winning plate appearance. “I used my speed to put pressure on the shortstop, and it worked out.”

Firebirds manager Kelly Nicholson, who has led the team since 2005, praised Barr’s effort. “He’s been serving his country for the last three weeks and came in cold, but his quick feet made the shortstop rush the throw.”

For fans of strong outfield play, the performance by the Firebirds’ starting outfield was promising. Left fielder Javar Williams, center fielder Jaden Bastian, and right fielder Jordan Taylor (potentially the “J” Birds?) each made a high-degree-of-difficulty catch. Bastian’s was spectacular, as he pulled down a drive off the bat of Cotuit’s number three hitter, Jackson Natili, while running at full tilt toward the Ace Handyman sign near the 350-foot mark in left-center field. Minutes later, he gunned down a Cotuit runner at third for the Firebirds’ first outfield assist of the season.

The pitching was also encouraging as Sebastian Gonzalez, a 5-foot, 10-inch lefthander from Hawaii, came on in relief of Scolari with one out in the third and pitched 4 2/3 innings of shutout ball, allowing only one hit and striking out six.

Orleans pitching coach Jim Lawler was pleased with his pitchers’ efforts and especially Gonzalez’s. “Sebastian only threw 50 pitches, and he bridged us to get us to the end of the game.  He did a great job,” said the affable Texan who is in his fourth season with the team.

Lucas Litteral, from Western Kentucky, pitched the 10th inning and recorded the win. Cotuit’s Tyler Albanese took the loss.

The game-ending, dugout-clearing celebration was the first of many the Firebirds aspire to this season. The osprey family will be there as will many more fans and blankets as attendance explodes in July. And, if all goes as well as it did in the opener, the advertising banners on the outfield wall may eventually be joined by a banner commemorating a league championship.

The Firebirds are at home on Thursday, June 19 versus Yarmouth-Dennis and on Saturday versus Harwich. Both games are at Eldredge Park starting at 6:30.