Orleans Walks Off the Braves

Orleans Walks Off the Braves

By: Jacob Janower

A walk-off sacrifice fly from Romy Gonzalez (Miami) lifted the Orleans Firebirds to a thrilling 3-2 win over the Bourne Braves.

It was the first time in the 2017 season that an opponent has walked off against the Braves (17-16).

The battle between two first-place teams was dominated by the pitching staffs, but also featured the third comeback from the Braves in as many games.

Richie Palacios (Towson) tripled and scored on a sacrifice fly by Jared Triolo (Houston) to tie the game in the top of the ninth inning off of Josh Hiatt (North Carolina), who has been one of the best late-inning relievers this summer in the CCBL.

The Firebirds (23-11) staff, which entered Friday night with the least amount of runs allowed in the CCBL, started off strong and handled the Braves outside of the late inning tallies. They allowed only five hits and walked two hitters. The bullpen added five strikeouts in four innings.

A big reason for the lack of offense was the starting pitchers. Braves’ starter Brian Eichhorn (Georgia Southern) and the Firebirds’ Brett Daniels (North Carolina) cruised through their respective oppositions with relative ease, not allowing either to do much damage offensively.

Eichhorn had arguably the tougher task, facing an offense which entered the night leading the CCBL in runs scored. The Firebirds also featured four All-Stars in their lineup.

The right-hander retired the side in three of his first four innings of work, only allowing a run in the second inning after a tricky play forced a low throw from shortstop Jeremy Eierman (Missouri State) that catcher Lyle Lin (Arizona State) could not scoop. Nevertheless, it was ruled a fielder’s choice.

A 10-pitch at-bat from Brandon Riley (North Carolina) that resulted in a double off of Eichhorn padded the Firebirds lead, but he was stranded at second.

Eichhorn’s five innings of work tied a season high, the fourth time he has pitched that deep into a game. He also did not issue a walk for the third time in five starts.

Late Inning Magic Temporarily Aids Braves

After two straight nights in which the offense fought back from a multi-run deficit, they were completely quiet before saving the dramatics for the final two innings.

Daniels- who was making his 10th appearance but first start of the summer- was sharp throughout his five innings, retiring eight straight batters to conclude his outing.

The first big threat from the Braves came when they loaded the bases on a single, error, and walk in the third inning, but a groundout ended the inning without any damage.

A run came home in the eighth inning when Jameson Hannah (Dallas Baptist), who had doubled to lead off the inning, came around to score on an errant throw by Orleans’ pitcher Cody Deason (Arizona) on a single by Grant Williams (Kennesaw State). The Braves had a chance to tie or take the lead in the inning with two men on, but Deason recorded consecutive strikeouts.

Palacios’ triple and Triolo’s sacrifice fly both came with two strikes in the at-bat.

The overall lack of offense was perhaps a regression to the norm for the Braves bats that entered the game in the lower half of the league in runs scored. They had been coming off one of their better two-game stretches of the season, having scored 12 combined runs over their two previous contests.

Despite the struggles, the theme of the night for the offense might have been the near misses they had at home runs, as the dimensions of Eldredge Park played against them. Lin, Eierman, and Triolo all flew out at or near the warning track, fly balls that would have left the yard at multiple CCBL parks.

Stat That Mattered

In ten at-bats with runners in scoring position, the Firebirds managed just one hit, a single by Ethan Paul (Vanderbilt) in the ninth inning. Their three runs scored on the aforementioned sacrifice fly, fielder’s choice and the double, which was hit with a runner on first base.

Brave of the Game

Lin went just 1-for-3, but reached base three times on a single, error, and walk. He extended his hitting streak to six games, and is 10-for-22 over that stretch.

Coming Up: Most of the Braves will head into Saturday getting a day of rest, but Williams, Zac Susi (Connecticut), Ryan Feltner (Ohio State) and Luis Alvarado (Nebraska) will all play in the All-Star Game. Bourne will then play Falmouth on Sunday in a divisional matchup.

Due to how jumbled up the top four teams in the West division are, the Braves dropped all the way down to third place with the loss and wins from Cotuit and Falmouth. However, they remain just one point out of the division lead.

You can contact the author via email (jjanower@gmail.com) or follow him on Twitter (@JanowerJacob).

Pre-game, in-game, post-game highlights: