The Harwich Mariners picked up their fourth win of the season by a score of 2-1 at Eldredge Park, beating the Orleans Firebirds in a low-scoring pitchers' duel Friday night. At the same field where it was eliminated from the playoffs last season, Harwich got gritty and managed to scrape across a couple of late runs to top the struggling Firebirds.
After struggling to maintain any offense through the first seven innings, Harwich was presented with its best scoring opportunity in the top of the eighth. Trailing by a score of 1-0, the Mariners were the beneficiaries of two HBPs and an infield single, loading the bases with just one out.
Harwich veteran Matt Scannell then stepped up to the plate with an opportunity to do some serious damage. Scannell worked himself into a 2-2 count, and on the fifth pitch he tagged a fly ball into deep left-center field. It was an easy tag situation for the runners on second and third, Daniel Dickinson and Jake Ogden, but Cam Maldonado made a good read from first and attempted to take second base.
As Maldonado approached second base, the Orleans infield recognized that it had a shot to throw him out. The throw went awry, however, trickling into the empty gap between first and second base, allowing Dickinson to round third and score easily.
Justin Mitrovich came in to close the game out in the ninth inning, cementing the win for Harwich.
"We teach that stuff," Mariners manager Steve Englert said about his team's base running. "Base running is such an important aspect of the game, especially down here when runs are at a premium. We cover a lot of baserunning, [Harwich assistant coach Johnny Adams] does a great job doing that and we stress that. That's the way you've got to take advantage of those 90s, and it paid off for us tonight."
Pitching was far and away the highlight of the night for the Mariners, as Mitrovich, Jacob Frost, Sam Tookoian and Bryson Bales combined to allow just one run on four hits, only walking two while striking out 11.
Frost got the start in his first Cape Cod Baseball League appearance and dominated through his four innings of work. The Kansas State product struck out six and shut out the Firebirds in his outing.
"Great outing by [Frost] his first time out there, it was very efficient," Englert said.
Although Orleans has struggled to get the bats going this season as it has started 1-5, Englert didn't underestimate his opponent, knowing the history of the matchup and how heated it has been in recent years.
"It seems like every time we play each other over here it's always a tight, tight game," Englert said. "It's always a fun game."
The Mariners are back at home at 5:30 p.m. Saturday to take on the Y-D Red Sox for the second time this season.