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Nate Freiman's four hit night coupled with his base-running in the 10th inning led to a Cardinals win

Fog, Skunks, Lead Changes, And Extra Innings - Tonight Had It All In Orleans

A wild pitch in the bottom of the tenth scored the winning Cardinals run

July 19, 2007

By: Brett Brecheisen - Orleans Cardinals Intern

Orleans, Massachusetts – It took ten innings, lots of fog, a skunk delay, and 13 total runs between Orleans and Cotuit; but, when it was all said and done, the Cardinals left Eldredge Park tonight with their first extra inning win of the season.  1B Nate Freiman (Duke) came across the plate after a wild pitch in the bottom of the tenth to win it for the Cardinals, 7-6.

“Baseball is a crazy game.  It was finally our time and it’s good to win one like this,” Manager Kelly Nicholson said.

The lead changed hands three times tonight and it all started in the third.  A base-hit by Cotuit 1B Aaron Baker (Oklahoma) would give the Kettleers a 1-0 lead as it drove in DH Tony Delmonico (Florida State) who started the inning off with a double.

The Cardinals wasted no time bouncing back.  They picked up three runs in the bottom half of the inning with the help of a triple from C Travis Tartamella (Pepperdine) with one out.  He launched a ball to deep right-center field that seemed to give Cotuit RF Caleb Joseph (Lipscomb) some trouble in the fog.  The ball bounced off the fence over Joseph’s head and Tartamella raced 270 feet for the three-base hit.  A sacrifice bunt by CF Ollie Linton (UC Irvine) scored Tartamella.  A few batters later, Frieman doubled to right-centerfield to drive in 2B Alden Carrithers (UCLA) and RF Dennis Raben (Miami, FL) to give Orleans the 3-1 lead.

Just like the Cardinals wasted no time fighting back, neither did the Kettleers.  Down two runs heading into the next inning, Cotuit exploded for a five run inning capped by a Delmonico grand slam.  That gave the Kettleers the lead back, this time 6-3.

Orleans continued the trend of scoring runs and in the next half inning loaded the bases up with two outs.  Cotuit starter LHP Matt Wright (Shippensburg) walked Linton to force in a run and cut the Kettleers lead to two runs.  That’s when Cotuit Manager Mike Roberts made a call to the bullpen and took Wright out after just 3.2 innings.

Facing LHP Matt Costello (Iona) with the bases loaded and two down, Raben hit a soft line drive to the right side of the field.  2B Josh Harrison (Cincinnati) sprinted backwards and towards the foul line and made an incredible, full-extension diving catch to not only record the out but end the inning and keep at least two more Cardinals runs from scoring.

“Harrison made three great plays for them, that play he made on Raben saved them a couple runs,” Coach Nicholson said.  Harrison also made two impressive plays with his glove to nail Linton on a couple of bunt attempts.

The great Cotuit defense did not put the Cardinals down, however, and 3B Chase d’Arnaud (Pepperdine) made sure of that.  With Freiman aboard and the Cardinals trailing by two runs with two outs, d’Arnaud launched a two-run bomb well over the fence in left-centerfield to tie the game.  It was d’Arnaud’s third home run of the season and second against Cotuit.

The Orleans bullpen would take the game over from there as LHP Will Atwood (S. Carolina) started throwing the ball very well after he gave up the grand slam to Delmonico, the first batter he faced.  Atwood pitched three innings allowing just that run and was followed by great outings from RHP Sam Brown (NC State), RHP Nick Christiani (Vanderbilt), and LHP Rob Catapano (UNC), who picked up his first win of the season despite throwing 11.2 shutout innings.

“I like to get ahead of hitters and get batters out.  I just try to throw strikes and leave it up to the hitter to hit and the fielders to field it,” Catapano said.

The game had to be delayed for several minutes in the sixth inning when a skunk trotted onto the playing surface from right-field.  The players, many of whom were unsure as to what to do, scattered away from the animal as it chased a couple of the Cardinals outfielders.  No one volunteered to try to chase it away or pick it up so the skunk ran around for several moments before it finally ran off the field and back into the bushes beyond the right-field fence.

The game remained in a 6-6 tie until the bottom half of the tenth when the Cardinals began to rally.  Freiman led the inning off when he hit a ball sharply to the shortstop who could not handle it.  The hit was Freiman’s fourth of the game, a team-high for the season. SS Brandon Crawford (UCLA) would single to center-field to move Freiman to second and d’Arnaud was hit by a pitch to load the bases up with one out.  That brought LF Eric Reese (Fordham) to the plate with a chance to be the hero.  The Cards would not need any heroics from Reese, however, as they received their own help from Cotuit RHP Josh Lindblom (Purdue).  Lindblom’s 1-2 pitch skipped in the dirt and past C Robert Stock (USC) as Freiman sprinted home from third to win the game.

“It was awesome that we could win a game in extra innings tonight.  We’ve struggled in extras as a team so far this season so this was a team win and everybody’s really thrilled.  It was nice to see the ball well and I’m glad I could help us win tonight,” Freiman said.

 The 7-6 extra-inning win was the first win in extras by Orleans all season.  The Cardinals had been 0-4 in those games prior to tonight.  The four-hit game for Freiman was his third multi-hit game in the past week.

“I think Nate Freiman saw the ball really well tonight and he’s hitting with a lot of confidence.  Hitting is contagious and anytime you score six or seven runs, you’re probably going to win.  After the grand slam, we really pitched well.  I couldn’t be happier, we did a good job. I am really proud of them,” Nicholson said.

The win puts the Cardinals above .500 yet again at an overall record of 15-14-0.  Wins by Chatham, Brewster, and Yarmouth-Dennis tonight did not improve the Cards in the Eastern Division standings, but definitely gives Orleans momentum heading into another important weekend of baseball.

“When we lost to Chatham, it made some guys upset and we really wanted to come out and win tonight.  This is the stretch towards the end of the season where we really need to play well to make a run at the playoffs and I think our team came out energized tonight to do that,” Freiman said.

The Cardinals will travel to Harwich tomorrow night and Falmouth on Saturday evening before returning home again to play host to the Wareham Gateman on Sunday at 7:00pm.  RHP Brad Boxberger (USC) will return to the mound tomorrow for Orleans.  His 1.35 ERA is tops among Cardinals pitchers with 20.0+ innings pitched.

W – Rob Catapano (UNC), 1-0

L – Josh Lindblom (Purdue), 4-1

SV – None