Firebirds, Brown Race Past Mariners
By Tyler Maland
July 17, 2009
Harwich, Mass.
– The Orleans Firebirds snapped convincingly out of a three game
winless streak Friday evening, reaching double digits in runs for the
first time this season and collecting 16 hits in a 10-2 win at
Harwich. Two days after being named starters in the All-Star
Game, Rob Rasmussen (UCLA) and Gary Brown (CS Fullerton)
led Orleans
in the victory.
Rasmussen (3-0) overcame a wild first inning to get the win
and pitched 5.2 innings, allowing five hits and two earned runs with
three walks and six strikeouts. Brown was 4-for-5 with two
doubles, two runs, three RBI, one stolen base and several plays for the
highlight reel.
Orleans
was held scoreless in the first two frames, but scored in every other
inning but the ninth. Harwich, on the other hand, scored a run in
each of the first two innings but was shut out for the rest of the
game.
Rasmussen, who came into the game with a 0.96 ERA and a
26-to-3 strikeout to walk ratio, was uncharacteristically wild to start
the game. After retiring the first two Harwich batters, he gave
up a single and two straight walks to load the bases before throwing a
pitch several feet over catcher Hampton
Tignor’s (Florida) head to score Phil
Gosselin (Virginia).
In the second inning, Harwich shortstop Levi Michael (UNC)
hit a solo home run to left center to put the Mariners on top 2-0, but
those were all the runs Harwich would get for the rest of the
night.
Orleans
got on the board for the first time in the third inning when Riccio
Torrez (Arizona St.)
hit an RBI single to left field. Alex Hassan (Duke) hit a
two-run single in the fourth, and Kevin Muno (San Diego) reached on an error
and scored on an error in the fifth to make it 4-2 Firebirds.
After the top of the fifth inning, Gary Brown was 1-for-2 with
a walk and a meaningless single. In the next three innings, he
turned on the jets and provided an all-around clinic for a packed and
undoubtedly impressed crowd. Coincidentally, it was an MLB Scout
Day in Harwich.
In the bottom of the fifth, Brown gunned Trent Mummey (Auburn) out
at third from centerfield after Mummey had stolen second base and was
trying to advance on a Tignor overthrow. In the top of the sixth,
Brown hit what should have been a routine single directly to Brewster
left fielder Leon Landry (LSU). Instead, Brown never
halted at first base and slid into second with a double before
Harwich’s middle infielders had even turned around. He came
around to score on a wild pitch later in the inning.
In the top of the seventh, Jeremy Gould (Duke) and Ross
Heffley (Western Carolina) hit back-to-back singles to start the
inning and were sacrificed to second and third to bring up Orleans’s
leadoff man with one out. This time, Brown went opposite field
for a two-run single. He again tried to stretch a routine single
into a double, and once again made it to second base safely, this time
getting caught in a rundown but avoiding the out by drawing a fielder’s
interference call. He promptly stole third, and scored when the
throw to catch him was wild.
Orleans
(and Brown) struck again in the eighth, this time when Kevin Muno and
Gould hit back-to-back singles with one out. After a Heffley
strikeout, Tignor hit an RBI single and Brown fittingly capped Orleans’s
scoring with a double – this time, a routine double down the right
field line – to score Gould and make it 10-2.
Brown entered the game third in the league in hitting at .353,
and after his outstanding night is now batting .384. Gould
snapped out of an 0-for-9 slump by going 3-for-4 with three runs.
Hassan was 2-for-5 with two RBI, and Danny Muno (Fresno St.) and Riccio Torrez (Arizona St.)
also each had two hits.
Michael went 1-for-4 with the home run, his first of the
summer, for Harwich. Landry went 2-for-4 and Stuart Tapley (FSU)
went 2-for-4 with two doubles, but did not score after either hit.
Brett Weibley (Kent
St.) came in for Orleans
in the 6th and pitched 2.1 scoreless innings of one-hit
ball, while Brock Stassi (Nevada)
pitched the ninth and also gave up just one hit.
Orleans,
now 16-11-1, travels to Bourne Saturday afternoon for a 5:30 p.m.
matchup that will have first place implications for both sides.
Harwich is last in the East at 11-16, and hosts Cotuit Saturday night
at 7:00 p.m.
(Box
Score)
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