By Maxwell Paul McLaughlin
The Brewster Whitecaps won their third straight game by a score of 5-0 against the Orleans Firebirds.
Suddenly the Whitecaps have hit their stride at a pivotal time in the season, with the playoffs coming up in only a few days. The Whitecaps went from a team fighting for a playoff spot to a team with eyes on a number one seed while the Y-D Red Sox continue to slip with two games left in the regular season.
“There’s been a different energy in this dugout with the new additions to this team,” Bench coach Joe Pace said. “A lot of timely hitting and great pitching got us this win tonight, and we are getting hot at the perfect time.”
The Whitecaps came out hot in the first inning; the newly added Dylan Goldstein (Florida Atlantic) had an RBI-double to give the Whitecaps a 2-0 start to the day.
Orleans loaded the bases in the bottom of the first inning, but with two outs, Carson Liggett (Louisville) was able to strike out the batter and get out of trouble.
Once again, Liggett got out of trouble in the bottom of the second with runners on the corners, with a huge strikeout to keep the Whitecaps atop of the Firebirds 2-0.
After Liggett walked a batter in the bottom of the third inning, Najer Victor (Central Florida) came on and subsequently picked off the runner and induced a flyout to get out of the inning.
Will Hearn (San Francisco) took over for Victor in the bottom of the fifth and was able to get the Whitecaps out of trouble again.
Chase Adkison (Oklahoma State) led off the sixth inning with a double and then was moved over to third on a Davis Diaz (Vanderbilt) sacrifice bunt; Adkison then scored off a Parks Harber (Georgia) RBI double.
Parks Harber (Georgia), who had been previously struggling at the plate, has been recently hitting the ball well and is now on a hitting streak.
“I really focused on my swing, and I’ve been taking a lot of reps in the cage, so I feel like it’s been finally paying off,” Harber said.
The Whitecaps tacked two more runs on in the top of the seventh after Chase Adkison (Oklahoma State) hit into a fielders choice that scored a runner from third, then a failed back pick play to be third that sailed to the fence scored another run for the Whitecaps to make it 5-0.
For the final three innings Kyle Kramer (UCF) and Braxton Pearson (TCU) came in and shut the Firebirds down and get out of Eldredge Park with a win.