Coming off three-straight losses, Orleans needed something to click on Saturday night against the Harwich Mariners.

And, fortunately for the Birds, something did. A strong showing from the pitching staff and a full team effort allowed Orleans to do just that.

In front of a packed Eldredge Park on Saturday night, Orleans delivered a win against the 2024 Cape League champions.

“Had a rough past few games and had a lot of opportunities defensively to just help our pitchers out tonight,” Jonathan Mendez (UC Santa Barbara) said. “We got a lead early and had some runs and nine hits on the board. It was just a good win collectively.”

The first two innings were a punch-for-punch defensive battle for both squads, as neither the Birds or the Mariners were able to get anything going.

The third inning was rather telling.

After Evan Dempsey (Florida Gulf Coast) reached second on a Birds’ throwing error, it seemed like the Mariners were beginning to heat up. That only intensified when Bristol Carter (Auburn) singled on a ground ball, bringing Dempsey home on the play and giving Harwich a 1–0 lead.

If Orleans wanted to end its winning woes, something needed to change.

In the bottom of the fourth inning, it did—just when the Birds needed it most.

Robbie Lavey (George Washington) walked to start the inning. After a Birds’ out the next play, Luke Nixon (NC State) had his chance to snatch the lead from Harwich.

Locking eyes with Thomas Shurtleff (Pennsylvania), Nixon winded up and singled on a ground ball, bringing Lavey to second.

Off a Shurtleff wild pitch, both Nixon and Lavey advanced. Orleans only continued to benefit, as Alejandro Garza (Cal Poly) walked next.

With bases loaded, all eyes were on Mendez. Following a Shurtleff throwing error, both Lavey and Nixon ran home, as Mendez reached first on a fielder’s choice.

Having a 2–1 lead, the Birds didn’t have a safety net quite yet.

However, it wasn’t until the bottom of the sixth inning, where they did.

With two outs on the board, that didn’t faze Jordan Taylor (Stetson). In fact, that may have motivated him, as he delivered his first home run of the season off a fly ball and the only one of the matchup.

Sailing over the heads of the Harwich outfielders, no one was going to stop Taylor from notching a homer. The Birds fans cheered in unison, as the scoreboard now read 3–1 Orleans, marking the last score change of the game.

“I was looking for that pitch, and I got it,” Taylor said. “In this league, you can’t miss that many pitches and get that many chances back, so I was just going out there and hitting the pitches I was looking for.”

While it may have been the home run that sealed the win, Taylor and manager Kelly Nicholson believe it was more than just that.

“I think anytime we can hold a team like Harwich to one run, we can tip our cap to our pitching staff, they threw the ball really well,” Nicholson said. “Cal Scolari threw well, Cole Tryba threw the ball well, Ethan Foley was extremely good tonight, and Steele Murdock was Steele Murdock. It was good to get a win tonight.”

Throughout the 9 IP, the four pitchers allowed six hits with just one run, notching seven strikeouts.

When asked what solidified a Birds’ win, Garza kept it simple.

“I think the timely hitting we had today helped,” Garza said. “We’ve been struggling on scoring guys on base in scoring position, but today we took advantage of that on a couple errors.”

Going into tomorrow night’s matchup against the 6–1 Brewster Whitecaps, the mentality remains the same.

“The preparation is going to be the same,” Mendez said about playing Brewster. “We just need to trust that we are good enough to beat any team that we are playing that day.”