• Home
• Cards News
• Game Day Central
• Roster
• Coaching Staff
• Sounds of the Game
• Clinics
• Volunteer
• Alumni
• Contact

Cardinals LHP Will Atwood allowed one run in 2.1 innings

Orleans Scores Seven Runs In Another Victory

The Cardinals 7-5 win over Harwich was their fourth in a row

June 29, 2007

By: Brett Brecheisen - Orleans Cardinals Intern

Harwich, Massachusetts – The Orleans Cardinals won their fourth game in a row tonight, but in a fashion that most fans aren’t used to seeing from this year’s team.  The Cards found themselves in a high-scoring affair with Harwich and defeated them, 7-5.

Orleans scratched out their first run in the second inning by playing small ball and advancing base-runners.  SS Brandon Crawford (UCLA) led off the inning by drawing a walk.  He stole second base and advanced to third on a ground out.  With two outs, C Hampton Tignor (Florida) drove the first pitch he saw right up the middle to bring in Crawford.  It was Tignor’s first RBI of the season.

Boxberger ran into a little bit of trouble in the third when 2B Jared Bolden (VCU) reached base with an infield hit, moving to second on RHP Brad Boxberger (USC)'s errant throw to first.  Bolden then advanced to third on a wild pitch with only one out.  Boxberger pitched his way out of the jam, however, when his 2B Alden Carrithers (UCLA) made a leaping catch on a sharp line drive to pick up out number two and Harwich SS Cole Figueroa (Florida) flied out for the third out of the inning.

The Cardinals continued their success with two-outs at the plate in their next trip to the dish.  With two outs and nobody on, Tignor drew a four pitch walk to start a rally.  Carrithers, hitting lead-off for the first time this season, dropped a blooper in between the Harwich shortstop and center-fielder.  With two runners on and still two outs, LF Eric Reese (Fordham) drilled a pitch down the left-field line.  The ball stayed fair as it bounced off the wall and Reese raced all the way to third base.  His triple scored two more Cardinals as they took a 3-0 lead.

“When you’re on defense and you’re giving up two-out runs, you are a pitch away from getting out of the inning.  When you’re the team scoring those runs, it really keeps the momentum in your dugout.  That’s why hitting coach, Coach Gorr, is really big on two-out hitting,” Field Manager Kelly Nicholson said.

The Cardinals looked like they were cruising to yet another shutout when the game took a vast change in the bottom of the fifth.  The Mariners started finding ways to get runners on and put together an inning where batters reached base on infield hits, bloopers, errors, and walks.  A fantastic double play turned by the two middle infielders from UCLA ended the inning but the damage was already done. Three Harwich runs tied the game and resulted in yet another no decision for Boxberger.

Orleans took no time in getting those runs back in the top of the sixth.  A leadoff double by 3B Chase d’Arnaud (Pepperdine) got things going.  Two batters later, Tignor knocked him in for his second RBI of the game.  The hits continued for the Cards as Carrithers followed with a bunt single.  A walk by Reese loaded the bases up for RF Dennis Raben (Miami, FL).  Raben drove in another run, his 13^th of the season, when he went opposite field on a pitch and sent it to left-field for a base-hit.  The Cardinals went on to take a 6-3 lead.

Harwich managed to pick up a run in the sixth and threatened again in the seventh; but, the bullpen combination of LHP Will Atwood (S. Carolina) and RHP Sam Brown (NC State), managed to get out of a bases loaded jam for the Cards.  They got some help from Reese as he made a phenomenal sliding catch in foul territory for the third out.

As has been the trend in the past week, the Cardinals relied on RHP Ryan Perry (Arizona) to be their set-up man in the eighth and RHP Nick Christiani (Vanderbilt) to close it out in the ninth.  Perry did a brilliant job, throwing 11 pitches and retiring the side 1-2-3.  Christiani did allow a run, his first of the season. It was an unearned run, however, which keeps his ERA at a perfect 0.00.

Eric Reese certainly had a terrific night.  He managed to reach base in each of his first four at bats, picking up two hits and walking twice.  Reese nearly reached base a fifth time in his final at bat as he advanced Carrithers to second base with a sacrifice bunt he nearly beat out.

“Reese did a great job.  He almost hit that ball out and made a great bunt.  He made a really nice sliding catch down the line,” Nicholson said.

The Cards are still in second place, one point behind the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox.  Those two teams will square off tomorrow evening at 5:00pm in South Yarmouth. LHP Craig Bennigson (California) will take the mound for Orleans in the big game.

W – Will Atwood (S. Carolina), 2-0

L – Dan Hudson (Old Dominion), 1-2

SV – Nick Christiani (Vanderbilt), 4