ORLEANS, Mass. — In the second inning, Payton Manca (Florida State) surrendered a leadoff home run. The solo shot from Dawson Bryce (Charlotte) bounced off the top of the wall.
“(The home run) lit a fire under me,” he said. “It allowed me to compete more.”
And compete he did. After the home run, the Seminole settled in on the mound. Over his remaining four innings of work, Manca only allowed two more baserunners, both on walks.
“I got a little fastball heavy, but it got me more angry,” he said. “I just got more aggressive.”
The Cotuit bats, however, couldn’t support their starter and fell, 1-0, to the Orleans Firebirds on Thursday.
“I was proud of our guys,” Cotuit manager Loren Hibbs said. “They had a good attitude today and they competed.”
Plating runners in scoring position continued to be a hurdle for the team. The Kettleers went 0-for-9 Thursday with runners on second and/or third, but couldn’t convert when they had the opportunity.
“All you can do is try to barrel the baseball,” Hibbs said. “We just need to put the ball in play.”
Cotuit had a prime scoring opportunity in the second. Nolan Stevens (Oklahoma) led off with a single and quickly advanced to third on a wild pitch and throwing error on the Orleans catcher.
However, Firebirds starter JT Raab (Georgetown) retired the next three Kettleers he saw, ending the threat.
A couple of the familiar faces in the lineup were dealing with minor injuries, forcing Hibbs and his coaching staff to pivot.
To the bullpen.
Even though the right-handed pitcher went 0-for-4 in the nine hole Thursday, Nick Greaney (Louisiana Tech) won the sweepstakes to be the Kettleers’ designated hitter Thursday.
“We took pitcher’s BP the other day to reward them,” Hibbs said. “I never thought we’d be at a point where we would have pitchers hitting, but that’s where it’s at.
The pitchers who didn’t hit Thursday found success on the mound, with Zane Starling (North Florida) and Michael Gray (Pittsburgh) combining for three innings of no-out, three-hit work.
The highlight of the later innings for the Kettleers came in the eighth when the Firebirds had runners on the corners with no outs. After an intentional walk to Elijah Ickes (Hawaii), Anthony Potestio (San Diego) squared up to bunt.
On the first pitch, Potestio popped the ball up in front of and to the right of Gray. The future Panther sprinted, slid and snagged the bunt attempt to record the second out of the inning.
The Kettleers sent their sixth, seventh and eighth batters in the lineup to the plate in the ninth but were quickly retired to end the game.
The Kettleers return to Lowell Park on Friday for a date with a divisional opponent. First pitch against the Wareham Gatemen is scheduled for 4:30 p.m.
