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.

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.

Firebirds Fall To Y-D 3-2 And To Brewster 6-2

Sorry for the lack of blog posts; I haven't had much time to blog because of work.

The Firebirds lost to Yarmouth-Dennis yesterday 3-2. Jayce Boyd (Florida State) 'went yard' in his first at-bat as a Firebird. However, Ben McMahan's (Florida) 2-run double in the bottom of the seventh gave Yarmouth-Dennis the lead and eventually the win.

Earlier today, the Firebirds lost to the division leading Brewster Whitecaps 6-2. Martin Viramontes (Loyola Marymount) struggled early and gave up four runs in the first two innings. Elliott Glynn (UConn) gave up the other two runs. Burny Mitchem (Dayton) and John Brebbia (Elon) finished out the game and threw a combined two and one-third innings of perfect baseball. Matt Newman (Arizona State) went 3 for 4 in the loss and Kevin Muno (San Diego) hit a home run to left.

The Firebirds drop to 7-11 and are quickly falling behind Brewster, Yarmouth-Dennis, and Chatham. The Firebirds host the Chatham Anglers tomorrow on July 4th, 2010. Be sure to watch for some great Firebirds baseball and red, white, and blue bases.

Firebirds' Magic Number Stuck At 5 As They Fall To Brewster 4 to 2

The game started out rough for Elliot Glynn as he went 2 and 1/3 allowing 4 earned runs. Harold Martinez hit a 2-run homer of Glynn to give the Whitecaps a 4-0 lead. Orleans bullpen did great, however, by combining to pitch 5 and 1/3 innings of scoreless baseball.

Orleans started its comeback with a Mike Olt double and a Danny Muno sacrifice fly to score Olt. Jeremy Gould drove in the other Firebird run. That wasn't enough runs to outscore the Whitecaps. Orleans fell short 4-2.

Also contributing to the Firebirds offense were Riccio Torrez and his triple, Hampton Tignor's 2 hits, and Jeremy Gould's 2 hits.

The Orleans Firebirds are 19-16-1 and currently sit 2nd in the east. Remember, the top 3 teams in each division make the playoffs so they are almost in with Chatham (3rd place) having lost 8 in a row and still in 3rd.

Orleans needs 5 wins to clinch. With 8 games left this number seems hard to reach, but it is not what it seems. 5 games means that if Brewster wins all of its remaining 7 games then Orleans has to win 5. Every time the Firebirds win and (or) Brewster loses, the number decreases. They take on Falmouth tomorrow.

Firebirds... win? lose? No, they TIE

The Firebirds only get 1 point tonght as they tie the Brewster Whitecaps in 11 innings. In the 4th, Gary Brown tripled home a run and then scored to make it 2-1 Firebirds. Brown then hit a solo shot in the 7th to give the Firebirds a 3-1 lead over Brewster. Then, in the bottom of the 8th, Tim Ferguson hit a 2 run double to tie the game for the Whitecaps. Alex Hassan then proceeded to pitch a scoreless 9th. Orleans came close to pushing the winning run across but Jeremy Gould was thrown out at 2nd to end the top of the 11th. Brewster then got up and stranded runners at 1st and 3rd to end the ball game at a 3-3 tie.

This is Orleans' 1st tie giving them an odd number of points. On the other hand, Brewster is quite familiar to the 1 pointer having 4 of them on the season. The Orleans Firebirds take on Cotuit in a make-up game tomorrow night.