Hyannis struggles in eight of nine innings in loss against Orleans

A six-run ninth inning is overshadowed by rough early frames

By: Mike Maynard

The Hyannis Harbor Hawks dropped Sunday night’s late-season contest against the Orleans Firebirds 11-7. After being down 11-0, the Harbor Hawks (24-15-2) rallied back to score seven runs in the final two innings but still came up short.

The Firebirds (22-19) had an 11-run lead heading into the bottom of the eighth inning, with Hyannis coming up to bat. Bennett Thompson continued to stay hot early in his Cape League career, smacking a line drive into center field to plate the Harbor Hawks’ first run.

Coming into the bottom of the ninth, Hyannis had a daunting 10-run deficit to attempt to come back from. With the help of a hit-by-pitch, an error in the field by Orleans and an Eric Snow single, the Harbor Hawks quickly had the bases juiced with no outs.

The Firebirds made another error defensively to plate the first run of the ninth, just before walking three additional runs in to make it 11-5.

Trey Lipsey grounded into a fielder’s choice to bring in the fifth run of the inning, shrinking the deficit to five runs. Jon Jon Gazdar found himself up at the plate for the second time in the ninth and blooped a single into left field. With a good throw home by the Firebirds' left fielder, they were able to stop the bleeding and end the game on top 11-7.

Even though it wasn’t enough in the end, the fight out of Hyannis to keep battling even when down by a large margin was a promising sight to see.

“This team fights until the last out,” assistant coach Eric Luksis said. “These guys continue to work and they continue to fight and that’s all you can ask for when you’re down by 11 runs.”

The pitching staff for the Harbor Hawks did not play up to the standard that has become the norm as of late in this one. Orleans put together 12 hits, being spread out between seven different hitters in the lineup.

The 2023 season is coming to an end, and with that comes playoff implications. The Harbor Hawks will need to attempt to get back to their winning ways as the summer winds down, hopefully getting hot again moving into the playoffs.

“We just want to see consistency,” Luksis said. “We’re looking for certain things from the pitchers, we’re looking for certain things from the hitters and we’re looking for certain things on defense. As long as we check the box in doing those things every day, we should be in a good position.” 

Mike Maynard can be reached at mikemay62@gmail.com and followed on Twitter @mikecmaynard