Photo credit: Sophia Soropoulos
The Firebirds saw their four-game win streak come to an end, as the Gatemen put more barrels on baseballs than the Birds could keep up with.
Despite putting up a four-strikeout fight against the Wareham bats in his last outing, Cody Bowker (Georgetown), the most-used pitcher on the Cape coming into the matchup with Wareham, struggled to find the zone early.
Following his one-two-three first inning, Bowker saw four Gatemen hits translate to three runs over the course of the second and third innings, which had manager Kelly Nicholson looking to his bullpen early.
After Robbie Ayers (Loyola Marymount) cut the deficit to two with an RBI double that scored Austin Smith (San Diego), Joe Allen (Clemson) jogged out of the bullpen to keep his offense within striking distance.
Like Bowker, however, the normally reliable Allen struggled against the hot Wareham bats. After striking out the first hitter he saw, Allen saw back-to-back hits go to left field, which brought in a run, and a subsequent two-run homer expanded the Wareham lead to 6-1.
To get the Birds out of a disastrous fourth inning, Kelly Nicholson brought Max Gitlin (Clark) out of the bullpen just needing one more out.
A free pass handed out by Gitlin and back-to-back RBI singles helped the Gatemen pull away to an 8-1 lead.
Ian Daugherty (Oklahoma State) put a run on the board with a single that brought Ben Zeigler (Hawaii) home, which the Gatemen quickly made up for, responding with two runs of their own to expand their lead back to 10-2.
In the sixth, the Birds would have their best chance of the game to chip into the eight-run deficit, loading the bases with no outs.
Only managing to come away with two runs (RBI walk, RBI groundout), the Birds still found themselves down big and unable to string together a late rally, ultimately falling to the Gatemen 10-4.
The Firebirds will have a prime opportunity to bounce back Wednesday night, in their first-ever Hall of Fame Game, as Todd Helton returns to Orleans.
The Cotuit Kettleers make their final trip of the summer to Eldredge for a 6:30 first pitch.
