In a revenge game after last week’s walkoff loss in extra innings, the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox answered back and defeated the Orleans Firebirds 8-5 in eight innings on Thursday, making them the first Cape League team to clinch a playoff spot. Before the game was called due to darkness, Y-D’s ability to get on base often and subsequently knock runners in earned them the victory.

Y-D recorded 13 hits in this game. One player who recorded three of those, and whose bat kicked off Y-D’s offensive rallies in the third, fifth, and sixth innings, was shortstop Lucas Franco (Texas Christian University).

As of this game’s end, Franco ranks second among Y-D hitters in batting average (.457), on-base percentage (.524), and slugging percentage (.600) over 35 at-bats, making him one of Y-D’s most valuable and reliable hitters. His success at the plate begins with focus in practice doing everything with purpose, he explained.

“[I’m] staying with the process every day, like not taking [batting practice] for granted, not just going through the motions,” Franco said. “Really just focusing on my craft.”

Franco also served as a run-scoring chip for Y-D this evening, all three times he got on base, he scored. On two occasions, he scored because of timely hits from hitters behind him. Another time, in the third inning, his speed on the bases brought him home when he scored on an Orleans overthrow to put Y-D ahead 1-0.

Another key hitter of the game for Y-D was Jake Souders (Mississippi State). Hitting from the sixth hole, Souders went 2-for-4, and recorded three RBI on a double in the fifth inning to increase Y-D’s lead to 5-1. This big hit ended up being the game-tying run, making it one of the game’s most crucial and timely hits.

The right-fielder’s bat is beginning to heat up again, as this game raised his batting average to .254. He also left the game with a .325 on-base percentage, a .394 slugging percentage, and 15 RBI this season. Like Franco, Souders is also citing practice as one of the main contributors to his uptick in offensive production.

“I went in early and did some work with Coach today. I feel like you got to put in the work before,” said Souders.

He broke down what he worked on before today’s game.

“I’ve been pulling off the ball a lot, and then literally what I was working on today was driving the ball in the right-center gap, which ended up working out. So it was pretty cool to see some extra work, work out for me today. So I was super thankful for that,” said Souders.

Other standout hitters included Y-D’s Phoenix Call (University of California-Los Angeles) and Armando Briseño (Cal State Fullerton), who both went 3-for-4 with one RBI.

Two-way player Brock Ketelsen (Stanford University) dominated the mound with five strikeouts over four innings, and only allowed one hit and one walk.

Y-D’s will attempt to continue watching their practice turn into success on Friday, July 17 at 4:30 pm EDT, away, against Harwich.