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Brandon Crawford's bat exploded today with a home run and a triple

Five Out Of Six As Orleans Keeps On Winning

8-3 throttling of Brewster continues the Cardinals' latest trend - winning

July 24, 2007

By: Brett Brecheisen - Orleans Cardinals Intern

Brewster, Massachusetts – The wins keep coming for Orleans at a time when this team really needed to turn it up a notch.  Picking up big days at the plate from SS Brandon Crawford (UCLA) and RF Dennis Raben (Miami, FL) as well as adding the new bat of LF Kevin Muno (San Diego) today helped the Cardinals score eight runs and have 12 hits.  Orleans also rode the arms of RHP Clayton Shunick (NC State), LHP Will Atwood (S. Carolina), and RHP Nick Christiani (Vanderbilt) for a 8-3 win over the Brewster Whitecaps in eight innings.

Shunick started the game for Orleans and pitched great for the first four innings.  He found himself in some trouble in the fourth, however, and had to be pulled after just 4.1 innings.  The Alpharetta, GA native struck out four and allowed three runs.

He was replaced by Atwood who was instrumental in the win.  With the game tied at two and the bases loaded with just one out, the southpaw picked up a groundball and popped All-Star RF Charlie Cutler (California) to end the inning with only one more Whitecaps runner coming across the plate.

“Will Atwood did a great job with what we call damage control.  When he’s out there we have a lot of confidence in what we’re going to get out of him and it kept momentum in our dugout,” Manager Kelly Nicholson said.

One of the first two Cardinals runs came thanks to a home run off the bat of Crawford.  It was his fourth home run of the summer as the shortstop from UCLA really began to hit the ball today.  A member of the All-Pac 10 team in 2007, the standout Crawford had struggled to just a .179 average entering the game.  Crawford would later triple and be intentionally walked to cap-off a day in which he was 2-for-3 with eight total bases, two RBIs and three runs scored.

Orleans wasted no time to pick those runs, and their lead, back up in the top half of the sixth.  Facing RHP Brad Kledzik (Wake Forest), the Cardinals started a rally.  3B Chase d’Arnaud (Pepperdine) started things off by reaching base thanks to a hit by pitch.  That’s when Crawford ripped a triple to right-center on the next pitch to bring in d’Arnaud and tie the game at three.  The new-comer, Muno, followed with a base-hit to bring in Crawford for his first Cape Cod League RBI.  C Hampton Tignor (Florida) was the next batter and was also hit by a pitch.  A few batters later, Raben, drove in his league-leading 31^st RBI of the season.

Raben’s sixth inning base-knock was the fourth hit of the evening for him in just the second four-hit effort by a Cardinal this summer and raised his season batting average to .294.  1B Nate Freiman (Duke) had four hits in a game against Cotuit on July 19.

“I’ve been feeling good for awhile.  Today I went out early and did some early hitting by myself.  My swing feels good and I just want to keep swinging,” Raben said.  “When I went out early today I was focusing on staying inside the ball.  I have a tendency to come off the ball so I was really just working my hands earlier today and it paid off with those opposite field hits today,” he added.

The Cardinals would add three more in the seventh as they cruised to an 8-3 win.  The game was called after eight innings due to darkness.

Making his first appearance of the summer, Muno was 2-for-3 with a walk, RBI, and run scored.  Muno was a player for Pitching Coach Chris Beck and Defensive Coach Brian Felten at Loyola High School of Los Angeles.

“It felt good.  I was up there looking for my pitches to hit and they threw them to me so I just went out and hit them.  I was happy to go out and help the team.  I feel like I add a little bit of speed and 'pesty'-ness out there.  I like to be a pest on the bases and create havoc for the other team,” he said.

The win is now the fifth Cardinals win in their last six games and it has Coach Nicholson excited about his club.

“We were 'en fuego'.  Brandon Crawford had a big game and I was really proud of Kevin Muno coming in and getting a couple of base-hits in his first game.  The bullpen obviously did a good job and it was good to get a win,” he said.

Going rather unnoticed has been an impressive streak put together by Carrithers.  The second baseman from UCLA has now been on base for 21 consecutive games.  Carrithers wasted no time extending that streak today as he singled in his first at bat and came around to score on a Raben hit in the first inning.

The Cardinals will head to Bourne tomorrow to make-up a game that was rained out last week. Orleans is 2-1 against the Braves this season and will throw All-Star RHP Brad Boxberger (USC).  Boxberger has been remarkable this season, posting a 1-0 record and a 1.38 ERA in five starts.  The first pitch is scheduled for 5:00pm and will be brought to you by broadcasters Joel Godett and Andrew Gothelf on OrleansCardinals.com.

W - Will Atwood (S. Carolina), 3-0

L - Brad Kledzik (Wake Forest), 1-4

SV - None