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 Sweep Wareham In D-H!

Sorry for the delay on the post. Orleans won the first game 4-3 and the second game 7-2. Check out http://orleansfirebirds.com/061910.html for the complete article on the sweep.

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.