Birds Of Fire Enter Last Five Games Of The Season Hot!

The 20-18-1 Firebirds are 6-0-1 in their last seven games. Everything is starting to come together for the Firebirds entering the last five games before playoffs. The Firebirds have passed Harwich for third place in the East with back-to-back wins over the Mariners. They won the first game 8-2 and scored all eight runs in the ninth inning. In the second game, Jayce Boyd (Florida State) drove in 6 runs to power Orleans to a 14-3 win. Kolten Wong (Hawai'i) is back to hitting and leads the league with his .341 average. The Firebirds as a team sit in fifth in batting average (.229) and are .001 out of third behind Bourne (.230) and Falmouth (.230). Orleans' 2.39 ERA leads the Cape League by 0.21 over Brewster.

Around the league, Orleans and Yarmouth-Dennis are streaking, Brewster is slumping, Chatham was slupming and has not been able to move out of last place, and Harwich has lost two in a row and slid into fourth place. In the West, the race for first place is within three points [Cotuit-40pts, Bourne-38pts, and Wareham 37pts] and the race for fourth is within five points [Falmouth-31pts and Hyannis-26pts]. Also, first place Cotuit just signed Barret Loux (Texas A&M). Loux was the 6th overall pick in the 2010 MLB Draft.

As I said a little over a week ago, we are entering the August stretch of the summer where the Firebirds' attendance peaks and 'Mr. Firebird' pumps up the crowd along the right field line. Also, I am heading up to the Cape tomorrow morning. This means that my blog posts will be shorter but there will be more Twitter updates. You can follow my Tweets on the right side of the page or at www.Twitter.com/OrlFirebirds. Also, the official Firebirds' Twitter page, www.Twitter.com/FirebirdsCCBL has very in-depth updates.

Carpenter's Near No-No Caps Orleans' 3-1 Win Over Bourne!

Ryan Carpenter (Gonzaga) took a no-hitter into the ninth inning for the Firebirds. Creede Simpson (Auburn) pinch-hit to start the ninth inning and tripled to deep right to break up the no-hitter. Scott Woodward's (Coastal Carolina) sacrifice fly then scored Simpson. Marcus Stroman (Duke) relieved Carpenter and shut the door on Bourne to record his eighth save of the summer.

Bourne's starter, Will Jolin (UConn) took a no-hitter through five innings until Kolten Wong (Hawai'i) broke it up with a single. Steve Selsky (Arizona) then drove him home with an RBI double to give Orleans a 1-0 lead. Jayce Boyd (Florida State) grounded out to second to move Selsky over to third base. Riccio Torrez (Arizona State) singled home Selsky to give Orleans a 2-0 lead. In the eighth, Ronnie Shaeffer (UC-Irvine) doubled home Jayce Boyd to provide Orleans with some insurance.

Ryan Carpenter took home the win, Will Jolin got the loss, and Marcus Stroman got the save. Carpenter's nine strikeouts, one hit allowed, and one earned run helped drop his ERA to 2.43. Stroman has been outstanding on the summer. He allowed no hits and struck out one tonight, and has not allowed a run in 23 innings pitched this summer.

The Orleans Firebirds improve to 17-18-1 on the season and sit one point behind Harwich who lost tonight in a great comeback by Wareham. However, Harwich plays Y-D in a double header tomorrow. Orleans moves eight points ahead of Chatham for the final playoff spot in the East. The Firebirds host Cotuit tomorrow night at 7:00pm at Eldredge Park. You can tune into the Firebirds' TeamLine Broadcast tomorrow night to see the game. The link is located in the "Helpful CCBL Links" page on the bar near the top of the page.

Simon Rolls Against Y-D And 'Birds Fall Short To Brewster And Bourne

On Thursday, Kyle Simon (Arizona) took the hill for the Firebirds and continued his dominance. Simon tossed eight innings and allowed five hits, one earned run, one walks, and four strikeouts. Simon's 0.69 earned run average sits among the league leaders along with teammate Matt Sisto's (Hawai'i) 0.84 earned run average. John Brebbia (Elon) threw a perfect ninth out of the bullpen and struck out two. Orleans' bullpen has been "lights out" lately.

The Firebirds' tied the game up in the second on Steve Selsky's (Arizona) RBI single. In the fourth, the 'Birds took the lead on Selsky's solo home run. In the fifth, an RBI single by Jayce Boyd (Florida State) made it 3-1. In the seventh, RBIs by Riccio Torrez (Arizona State) and Jayce Boyd made it 5-1 and a wild pitch scoring Matt Newman (Arizona State) added another.

The Firebirds won this one 6-1 over Yarmouth-Dennis. Also, Danny Muno (Fresno State) was released by Orleans and signed by Yarmouth-Dennis. Muno started for the Red Sox and went 0 for 2.


On Friday, the Firebirds took on the league's top team, the Brewster Whitecaps. They lost this one 4-3 and almost pulled off a great comeback.

The first Firebird run was scored in the third on a Matt Koch (Loyola Marymount) single to score Jason Esposito (Vanderbilt). In the seventh, the Firebirds scored their second run on a Matt Newman single that scored Matt Koch. In the ninth, Preston Tucker (Florida) doubled home Kevin Muno (San Diego) to pull within one run of Brewster. The Firebirds then had runners on the corners and were unable to bring them in.

Cameron Hobson (Dayton) went five innings and allowed three hits, three earned runs, two walks, and two strikeouts. Burny Mitchem (Dayton) allowed the fourth Whitecap run during his two innings of work on a Kirk Singer (Long Beach State) home run. Kenny Long (Illinois State) allowed one hit and no runs in the eighth and Jack Leathersich (UMass-Lowell) pitched a perfect ninth.

Andrew Gagnon (Long Beach State) got the win and improved to 4-0 on the season. He appears to be one of the better pitchers in the league, along with Matt Sisto, Kyle Simon, and his Brewster teammate Anthony Ranaudo (LSU). Ranaudo is from Jackson, NJ (which is about ten minutes away from where I live) and was drafted very early by the Boston Red Sox in 2010. His starts are being followed closely by the Cape Cod Times and their Twitter page www.Twitter.com/capeleagueCCT.

The Firebirds were rained out on Saturday against Falmouth.

On Sunday, the Firebirds lost to the Bourne Braves 2-0. They struggled at the plate and only had two hits on the game. In the ninth, however, Preston Tucker sent a deep fly ball to the fence that almost gave Orleans a 3-2 lead. It was caught and the game ended.

Andrew Kittredge (Washington) let up the two Bourne runs and got the loss. Kenny Long, Will Clinard (Vanderbilt) and Marcus Stroman (Duke) combined to allow no runs on one hit (allowed by Long).

The Firebirds try to gain ground on Harwich for the last playoff spot on Monday night at 7:00pm.

Beat Down In Bourne! Firebirds Win 11-1!

Remember Kevin Muno's 4-hit performance three nights ago? That was the 1st, 4-hit game Orleans had had in almost 2 years. The way the Firebirds have been playing, someone was bound to do it again. This time it was Devin Lohman. Lohman went 4 for 5 in Orleans 11-1 win over Bourne.

Orleans quickly got on the board with a Jaren Matthews RBI single in the 1st. Bourne put up 1 in the 2nd but the lead fell back into the Firebirds' hands in the 3rd on a Danny Muno 2-run double to score Gary Brown. Then, a Jaren Matthews sacrifice fly scored Danny Muno to make it a 4-1 Firebird lead.

Orleans went down quietly in the 4th which means its time to "explode" in the fifth. They did just that. Actually, they did more than that. The big inning began with singles by Alex Hassan and Jaren Matthews. Alex Hassan scored on a wild pitch. Steve Selsky was walked and that brought up Jeremy Gould. Gould hit a 3-run homer to drive in Matthews and Selsky to give Orleans an 8-1 lead. Then, Matt Koch started them back up with a single and was driven home on Devin Lohman's first "big fly" of the summer. 10-1 Orleans after 5.

Orleans didn't strike again until the 9th when Devin Lohman drove in Koch while grounding out. If Lohman could have gotten another hit, he would have became the first Orleans player to go 5 for 5 since "who knows when."

Orleans has a double header on Sunday against the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox.

4 Points In 1 Day!

Orleans had been rained out twice against Bourne causing for a Monday night, double dip in Orleans. Orleans came into the game with 13 wins and 9 losses while Bourne had 13 wins and 7 losses and 2 ties. Orleans was leading the East with Bourne leading the West. Is this a preview of the Cape League finals? Who knows?


Game One was highlighted with a Riccio Torrez two-run double to give the Firebirds the edge over the Braves. Alex Hassan went 2 for 3 and also came in to record the final 2 outs of the game for the Birds. Jimmy Reyes picked up his 3rd win of the season allowing just 2 earned runs on 4 hits over 6 and 1/3. As for Bourne, Pierre LePage had two of their four hits, one of them being a 2-bagger. Chris Wallace also hit his 2nd homer of the year off of Reyes. Orleans took game one 6 to 2.



Game Two was decided by a wild pitch from Kevin Munson allowing Steve Selsky to score Orleans' 2nd run to give them a 2 to 1 victory over the Braves. Jorge Reyes threw six tremendous innings out of the 'pen but it was Matt Packer who got his 2nd "W" this year. Gary Brown went 2 for 3 with an RBI for the Birds while Kyle Roller went 2 for 3 for the Bourne Braves.


The Orleans Firebirds improve to 15 and 9 and have won 9 of their last 11 games. They take on the Cotuit Kettleers on Tuesday.