ORLEANS — He came. He saw. He conquered.
Arizona’s Bobby Dalbec has plenty to smile about after belting his second three-run homer of the night as he gets his props from Mercer’s Kyle Lewis.
Sean Walsh/Capecod.com Sports
Arizona slugger Bobby Dalbec belted a pair of three-run home runs Wednesday night at Eldredge Park – including one in the first inning – to pace the Orleans Firebirds to a 10-1 win over Chatham in the best-of-three game, East Division playoffs, and the win eliminated the Anglers from postseason contention. Overall, Chatham went 23-24 on the season and finished the playoffs at 1-2.
Dalbec went 3-5 on the night with six RBI, but his performance somewhat overshadowed the sheer brilliance of St. Mary’s righty Corbin Burnes who took a no-hitter into the fifth inning before Wake Forest’s Joey Rodriguez spoiled it with an infield single to lead off the top of the frame. Burnes went 6.2 innings and ended up allowing four hits (two of them infield hits in the fifth), one run, one walk and struck out four.
Austin Peay’s Jared Carkuff came in relief of Burnes, struck out two and allowed no hits and no runs in 2.1 innings of work.
But home runs almost always trump stellar mound efforts, especially in the Cape Cod Baseball League playoffs and especially when the same slugger hits two of them.
Dalbec put Orleans on the scoreboard in the first inning when he hammered the first pitch he saw from Chatham starter Ty Damron (Texas Tech) deep into the gravel parking lot in left-centerfield with Alex Call (Ball State) and Jeremy Martinez (USC) on base. That three-run homer was all the Firebirds would ultimately need to win. Including the regular season, Dalbec has put the “hammer” on 14 Cape League pitches this summer in Orleans.
St. Mary’s (CA) righty flamethrower Corbin Burnes was brilliant for the Firebirds in their 10-1 playoff win over Chatham Wednesday.
Sean Walsh/Capecod.com Sports
But Dalbec wasn’t the only Firebird to put on a display Wednesday night.
Vanderbilt’s Bryan Reynolds, Orleans’ leadoff man, went 4-4 on the night with one RBI and all totaled the ‘Birds pounded half of the eight Chatham pitchers Anglers’ manager John Schiffner carted out to the mound for 13 hits.
The Firebirds plated three runs in the first on Dalbec’s first homer, two more runs in the third, another pair in the fifth and then the grand finale – Dalbec’s bookend three-run job in the bottom of the 8th inning.
Defensively, USC’s Martinez was the player of the game at first base for the Firebirds (or both teams for that matter). Martinez made at least four fantastic plays on the night at first. There is little doubt that the hustle award goes to Vanderbilt’s Reynolds, though, who legged out a double in the late-innings just to show that there’s only one way to play the game.
The dark-horse Y-D Red Sox – who swept the Brewster Whitecaps Tuesday night and sent them home for the summer – will visit Eldredge Park Thursday night for a 7:00 pm match-up in the best-of-three East Division finals.
Bourne will face Hyannis at McKeon Park at 6:00 pm in the West Division finals’ opener.
— Story and photos by Sean Walsh, sports editor for www.capecod.com. His email is [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @coachwalshccbm
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