By: Cole Bradley
HYANNIS, Mass- In his final at-bat on Monday night, Chase DeLauter (James Madison) hit a ball down the left field line that snuck over the wall just for his seventh homer of the year.
Home plate umpire Patrick Burns thought otherwise though.
Burns called the ball foul, receiving an earful almost immediately from Head coach Kelly Nicholson who watched his team fall once more in demoralizing fashion. After snapping a 12-game losing streak on Sunday, the Hyannis Harbor Hawks beat up on the Orleans Firebirds in a 13-1 win.
12 of Hyannis’ 14 hits were singles, only a Luke Mann (Missouri) three-run home run and a Clark Elliot (Michigan) double went for extra-bases. Orleans infielders had trouble keeping the ball in front of them, playing balls on wild hops that managed to get by frequently.
Of the few bright spots for Orleans, none impressed more than Nathan Florence (Hartford) who relieved starter Brett Wichrowski (Bryant) and tossed 3.2 innings. The right-hander struck out seven and held Hyannis at bay for the most part, giving up four unearned runs in the effort due to costly errors.
“There’s nothing we can do about the field, you just gotta go out there and give it your best shot,” Florence said. “These guys were definitely aggressive early on so that kind of played into my strategy. I went right at them and attacked.”
Florence in two appearances so far this summer has only given up one earned run, putting his ERA at 2.07 to start his summer. He established his fastball early against an aggressive Hyannis lineup before changing speeds effectively.
He lost a bit of command in his final inning of work before turning the rest of the game over to Jeff Praml (Southern New Hampshire).
“My initial goal was to go in and minimize damage, I wanted to establish fastball early,” Florence said. “I used the changeup to get ground balls which I think I did well.”
Hyannis starter Adrian Siravo (Weatherford) went six innings and held the Firebirds scoreless in the contest as well.
Orleans will look to reverse it’s losing ways on Tuesday in Cotuit, first pitch is scheduled for 5:00 pm.
