By: Alec Henden

ORLEANS, Mass. – Through the first seven innings of play Saturday night a common occurrence took place at Eldredge Park. Both starters for the Orleans Firebirds and the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox were on top of their game as threatening weather loomed over the packed crowd.

Unfortunately for the Birds, a disastrous eighth inning where balls found holes and errant throws led to Red Sox runs did them in leading to a 4-0 loss at home.

Y-D (13-7-1) got runners on the corners with one out in the eighth inning against Orleans reliever Isaac Esqueda (Southern California).  

Red Sox outfielder Jake Palmer (UC Irvine) grounded a base hit into right field getting Y-D on the board with the first run of the night, but that’s when the situation got sticky. Two fielding mishaps occurred on the play scoring two runs with Palmer ending up on third base on the play and deflating the Firebirds (11-8-2) morale.

“I had trouble getting my curveball over for strikes,” Esqueda said. “I kept leaving it up a little bit and had trouble with my fastball command. We had some overthrows that messed us up a bit, we were able to hold them to four runs but the throwing errors messed us up.”

Orleans starter Jared Shuster (Wake Forest) kept his stellar Cape season rolling with five innings of no run ball completely dominating the potent Red Sox lineup. Shuster effectively mixed his fastball and changeup to get through the Y-D order without even needing to use his breaking ball, impressing his pitching coach.

“Him (Shuster) being able to keep guys off-balance with the changeup freshens up his fastball that’s 90-91 now looks 94-95,” Orleans pitching coach Mathew Troupe said. “You can tell because the swings on the fastball are now way behind.”

Shuster’s ability to excel without mid-90s velocity has made him a weapon to the tune of a 1.00 ERA through three starts for Orleans. His repertoire is different than most pitchers in the league and has given every team he’s faced so far fits.

“These guys are facing a lot of guys that are throwing harder than 90-91, but they’re swinging as if he’s one of the hardest throwers on the Cape,” Troupe said. “That just speaks to how good his changeup is.”

Shuster knows how valuable of a weapon his changeup is when it’s working well, and Saturday night against Y-D was another example of its progression in his arsenal.

“My changeup I threw in the zone a lot as I was able to get a lot of swing and misses with that,” Shuster said. “It was a good pitch tonight.”

It was a quiet night for the Orleans offense, as the team couldn’t get anything rolling against the Y-D bullpen that initially intended to make Saturday night’s game a bullpen game.

Red Sox starter Legend Smith (Oklahoma) went beyond-and-above expectations by throwing five, efficient shutout innings to match Shuster. Once the Red Sox had the lead, they turned to their closer Taylor Dollard (Cal Poly) who successfully picked up a six-out save while striking out four of the six men he faced.

“This thing is just a big learning experience this early in the season,” Troupe said. “With guys coming in-and-out we constantly have to go over signs with new guys, even on our coaching side we’ve had a couple hiccups that we need to clean up.”

“It was awesome that we started out hot, but sometimes that’ll get to you because you’re not focusing on the things that matter when you’re winning ballgames,” Troupe said.

The Firebirds now head on the road for the back half of the home-and-home with the Red Sox. Orleans first meeting with Y-D took place at Red Wilson Field with the Birds coming up on the short in an 8-2 defeat.

Short Hops:

-Orleans will send right-hander Noah Skirrow (Liberty) to the mound Sunday evening.

-Friday night’s loss marks the eighth consecutive game that Orleans has been defeated by Y-D dating back to the 2018 season.

-Ahead of Friday night’s game, designated hitter Matt Goodheart (Arkansas) returned home for the summer for surgery to repair a torn labrum in his shoulder. Goodheart provided a strong presence in the middle of the Firebirds' order during his short time with the team.