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.

Firebirds Get Their Fourth Straight Win! 5-3 Over Cotuit!

Marcus Stroman (Duke) started the game for Orleans and threw five scoreless innings whiles striking out five and only allowing three hits. Cameron Hobson (Dayton) came on in relief and allowed Cotuit to cross the plate twice on sacrifice flies. Dennis O'Grady (Duke) then came on and threw one and two-thirds perfect innings. Burny Mitchem (Dayton) came on in the ninth, loaded the bases, and allowed a run; but eventually picked up the save and sealed the win for Orleans.

Kolten Wong (Hawai'i) lead off the bottom of the first with a single, followed by consecutive walks to Kevin Muno (San Diego), Steve Selsky (Arizona), and Will Piwnica-Worms (Duke). Wong scored on Piwnica-Worms' walk. Then, Shon Roe (Loyola Marymount) hit a sacrifice fly to right to score Kevin Muno. Ronnie Shaeffer (UC-Irvine) followed with a sacrifice fly of his own to center that scored Selsky. The Orleans Firebirds scored three runs in the first inning on just one hit.

In the second inning, Steve Selsky hit a sacrifice fly to center that plated Cam Kneeland (UMass-Lowell) and put Orleans up 4-0.

In the fifth, Will Piwnica-Worms singled home Kevin Muno after he stole third two pitches earlier.

Will Piwnica-Worms was the offensive star of the game for Orleans. He went 2 for 4 and drove in two runs. Steve Selsky now leads the Cape Cod Baseball League in batting average with his .478 average. Kolten Wong also added to his league leading 8 stolen bases.

The Orleans Firebirds are starting to piece everything together. Will Clinard, Jason Esposito, and Joe Loftus (All from Vanderbilt) should be in Orleans and activated for Tuesday. Elliott Glynn (UConn) is also back in Orleans after playing for the Firebirds in 2009 and the Cardinals in 2008. The Firebirds are off tomorrow and host the Brewster Whitecaps on Tuesday at 7:00pm.

Firebirds Win 1-0 In Cotuit On Selsky's RBI Single!

The Orleans Firebirds came into today's game against the Cotuit Kettleers with a record of 0 wins, 3 losses, and 0 ties. Two of their losses were your traditional Cape Cod Baseball League game (a close, low scoring game).

Martin Viramontes (Loyola Marymount) took the hill for Orleans throwing heat. Viramontes pitched five solid innings allowing just two hits while walking one and striking out five. Burny Mitchem (Dayton) threw two innings in relief and allowed one hit and one walk, while striking out one. Kenny Long (Illinois State) then came in in the eighth and threw two perfect innings to get his first save of the season by preserving the Firebirds' first win of the season. In doing so, he struck out four batters and dropped his earned run average to 1.80!

In the third inning, Kolten Wong (Hawai'i) singled with two outs. Kevin Muno (San Diego) then doubled and advanced Wong to third. Steve Selsky (Arizona) then singled to score Kolten Wong. Kevin Muno was caught in a run down on the play and was tagged out trying to score.

Steve Selsky went 2 for 3, walked, and drove in a run. He now has the second highest batting average (.467) in the Cape League according to http://tinyurl.com/232efa6. Kolten Wong went 1 for 3 with a walk and a run scored. Wong currently has the fifth highest batting average (.412) in the Cape League. He also leads the Cape Cod Baseball League in stolen bases with seven.

The Firebirds are beginning to piece it all together. Kolten Wong, Steve Selsky, Matt Koch, and Kevin Muno all continue to swing hot bats. In addition, the Firebirds have many talented players such as Preston Tucker (Florida). Will Geoghegan of Right Field Fog said in his article, "Go ahead and put Preston Tucker down as my Home Run Derby pick." The Firebirds currently have talent in Orleans and talent on the way to the Cape soon. Look for this Firebirds to get hot near the middle of the season and hopefully carry this into the postseason.

Orleans travels to Wareham tomorrow to play the first of their two double-headers that were required to include two extra teams (1 east and 1 west) in the playoffs. Both games of the double-header will be seven innings long, too.

Kevin Muno Comes Up Big But Darkness Ends Game With Orleans Down 5-3

If only the game could have continued... Oh well, let's get started.

The Cotuit Kettleers got out to an early lead on a Cory Vaughn RBI single. Orleans responded with a double by Kevin Muno, a Muno stolen base and a Devin Lohman RBI single to tie it at 1-1.

The Kettleers then scored 2 in the bottom 3rd to take a 3-1 lead. Firebirds turn. They responded with 4 runs on a Matt Koch RBI double, an Alex Hassan RBI ground out, and a Riccio Torrez 2-run double. 5-3 Firebirds.

Then, it was all Kettleers from there as Cotuit scored 2 in the 6th and 1 in the 7th on Tony Plagman's 2 RBI's before the game was called. 8-5 Kettleers over the Firebirds.

Gary Brown and Devin Lohman had 2 hits each for the Firebirds. The real stud, however, was Kevin Muno. Muno went 4 for 4, and stole 2 bases. The starting pitchers, Cole Cook and Seth Blair, each went 4 innings allowing 5 earned runs. Benjamin Rowen picked up the win and Tommy Kahnle got the loss. The 15-11 Firebirds travel to Harwich on Friday to take on the former Cape League champion Mariners.

4 Run 2nd Lifts Kettleers Over Birds

The Firebirds got off to a 1 run lead in the 1st but were unable to hold it as Matt Hiserman surrendered 4 runs in the top of the 2nd. The Firebirds were unable to claw their way back in this one and took the loss, 6 to 2. Mike Olt and Alex Hassan both went 1 for 4 with an RBI. Jaren Matthews and Matt Koch each had 2 hits in the loss. Brian Guinn and Cory Vaughn each had 2 RBI's in Cotuit's win. Thier pitcher, Jake Buchanan pitched a CG allowing 1 earned run on 6 hits.

Orleans is now 15-10-0 and still sits at the top of the East. They take on Brewster today and look to start a new winning streak.