ORLEANS – Northeastern’s Dustin Hunt proved virtually untouchable.
The 6’5 righty who hails from Andover dropped hammer after hammer upon the usually prolific Orleans Firebirds’ bats Saturday night at Eldredge Park and the end result was a 2-1 upset that bounced the hosts from their best –ever season (34-15-1) and boosted the Y-D Red Sox into the Cape Cod Baseball League championship finale beginning Sunday night at McKeon Park versus the Hyannis Harbor Hawks.
Oklahoma State’s Donnie Walton went 1-4 with one RBI to help lead the Y-D Red Sox to a 2-1 win over Orleans in the Cape League’s East Division finale Saturday night.
Sean Walsh/Capecod.com Sports
Hunt was brilliant for 7 2/3 innings, walking only one batter while scattering two hits and striking out 10.
He was followed in relief by Indiana southpaw Evan Bell who gave up two hits in one inning and allowed one run, and then Cal-State Fullerton’s Chad Hockin who struck out Virginia’s Daniel Pinero with the tying run on second base to end the game.
Miami’ Willie Abreu had singled with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning and reached second base on a wild pitch before Hockin was brought in to face Pinero for the game’s final out.
A brief albeit thrilling foreshadowing of good things to come for the visiting Y-D Red Sox came with two outs in the top of the first inning when Pacific slugger Gio Brusa crushed the first pitch he saw from Orleans’ ace Mitchell Jordan (Stetson) out of the park for a 1-0 lead that ultimately held up until the eighth inning.
Jordan went seven innings, scattered five hits and allowed that one run to the Red Sox. He walked two and struck out six while taking his only loss of the entire Cape League season.
Virginia Tech lefty Kit Scheetz came on for Orleans to start the 8th inning and once again Brusa came through for the Red Sox. After retiring the first two batters he faced in the 8th, Scheetz threw one ball to Brusa before Brusa hammered a two-out double to right field. That spelled the end for Scheetz who was relieved by Tennessee righty Kyle Serrano.
Pacific’s Gio Brusa belted a first inning solo homer to help lead Y-D to victory.
Sean Walsh/capecod.com Sports
Serrano worked a 1-2 count against Oklahoma State’s Donnie Walton before Walton came through just as he has all season with a single to centerfield for a 2-0 lead.
The Firebirds came back in the bottom of the 8th inning with a run that made it 2-1 on a key, two-out error by the Y-D left fielder on a ball hit by Vanderbilt’s Bryan Reynolds that plated Wright State’s Sean Murphy who had singled.
Orleans had a huge opportunity to tie the game when Ball State’s Alex Call reached on an error by the Y-D third baseman that put Reynolds on third and Call on first base but a Jeremy Martinez (USC) grounder to short ended the threat.
Brusa went 2-4 on the night for the Y-D Red Sox with one RBI, his solo shot in the first frame.
The Y-D Red Sox (26-23) will head to McKeon Park Sunday night to face the Hyannis Harbor Hawks (28-19-1) for the Cape Cod Baseball League championship in a best-of-three series. Monday night’s game will be at 4:00 pm at Merrill “Red” Wilson Field in South Yarmouth regardless of Sunday night’s outcome. If necessary, a game three would be held on Tuesday night at McKeon Park.
— Story and photos by Sean Walsh, sports editor for www.capecod.com. Video by Liz Cohen/Cape Cod Baseball League Director of Social Media. Walsh’s email is [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @coachwalshccbm
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