ORLEANS, Mass. — Dennis Cook got much more than he bargained for.

With Chatham’s lead dwindling against Orleans Friday night, Cook put Isaiah Lane (San Diego) in at shortstop to begin the bottom of the sixth inning. The manager said he wanted his best defensive player, Lane, on the field in crunch time. The Anglers had already committed three errors — one of which was on previous shortstop Gavin Gallaher (North Carolina) — so Cook decided to send in the player he hails as the best defensive shortstop he’s coached in Chatham.

Little did Cook know that his defensive specialist would win the game with his bat instead of his glove.

After flashing plenty of leather in the two preceding frames, Lane stepped up to the plate in the top of the eighth with the chance to break a 5-5 tie. The A’s had runners at second and third base. Lane just needed a base knock, though getting thrust into a clutch spot in your first at-bat of the game is not an easy scenario.

But don’t tell Lane that.

“Coming in cold, I told myself I was going to be aggressive and obviously with runners on, I wanted to get it done early,” Lane said of his eighth-inning plate approach. “So I saw fastball and took a hack at it, and it happened to fall.”

Lane poked a single that sailed a few feet above Firebirds’ shortstop Ryan Kucherak, bringing Chase Fralick (Auburn) and Jackson Freeman (Northwestern) across home plate. His eighth-inning two-run knock fresh off the bench ultimately sealed Chatham’s (7-7-3, East) 7-5 victory over Orleans (7-10, East) on the Fourth of July. The Anglers increased their Cape Cod Baseball League-best run total to 85, notched 12 hits and secured their fifth win in the last seven games — their best stretch of the summer thus far.

Though mid-game bullpen struggles led to the A’s falling behind 5-4 after seven innings, Lane’s late heroics make up the epitome of this current squad — one that continues to find ways to win, whether in suspenseful or spectacular fashion.

“We didn’t play clean I didn’t think at all,” Cook said postgame. “I didn’t think we pitched great. We gave up too many free 90s. Struck out too much. But, sometimes you gotta win ugly. And I think tonight, we won ugly.”

Chatham entered Friday’s Independence Day bout with unfinished business. At Veterans Field the previous night, the Anglers trailed the Firebirds 4-0 after five innings. But the game was ruled final before the sixth inning could commence due to a nearby lightning storm.

For an A’s offense that had been riding a heater, Thursday’s abrupt ending seemed a tad disrespectful — as if logic suggested they’d roll over with the odds stacked against them.

Well, not a single cloud could be seen in the sky Friday at Eldredge Park. This time, Chatham would get a full nine innings. And it sure needed all of them.

Facing Firebirds’ righty Luke Pettitte, the A’s didn’t get on the scoreboard until the third. Back-to-back singles from catcher Cade Arrambide (LSU) and center fielder Henry Ford (Tennessee) revved up Chatham’s offensive engine, and second baseman Ethan Mendoza (Texas) hit the gas pedal by sending a towering RBI sacrifice fly to dead center field.

A Fralick walk set Freeman up with two runners on in a two-out situation. But, on a night where the right fielder ballooned his team-best OPS to a scintillating .992, Freeman wasn’t going down easy. He immediately made Pettitte pay, blasting a first-pitch down-the-middle fastball over the right-center field fence.

Freeman’s emphatic three-run shot caused Orleans center fielder Javar Williams to jump and flip over the wall, though his daring home-run robbery attempt was unsuccessful. His blast capped off a commanding four-run frame for the Anglers.


For a Chatham squad that headed into the evening boasting the Cape Cod Baseball League’s highest-scoring offense (4.9 runs per game), Friday’s third-inning fireworks seemed inevitable.

And for a team that possesses the worst earned run average in the East Division (4.56), the Anglers coughing up a lead seemed inevitable, too.

Following a solid debut from Chatham righty Austin Breedlove (Tennessee), who went 3.1 innings with four Ks and two runs, left-hander Charlie Foster (Mississippi State) replaced him amid the fourth inning. Foster escaped the fourth without a blemish, but he then walked Orleans’ leadoff hitters to begin the fifth, sixth and seventh frames. A’s pitching coach Jay Powell had enough after the final walk, and swapped Foster for fellow lefty Michael Sharman (Clemson).

Sharman, also making his Anglers’ debut, allowed two runs to score in the seventh, one of which was charged to Foster’s record. He responded with authority by posting zeroes in the eighth and ninth to earn the pitching victory. Still, Cook expressed his displeasure postgame with how the A’s squandered a four-run lead — pinning the eight walks Chatham issued as the primary problem.

Without letting Orleans back into the game, though, Cook would’ve never gotten to see his personal No. 1 shortstop dazzle on the diamond.

When Foster walked the Firebirds’ leadoff man again to start the bottom of the sixth, Cook placed both hands on his head in visible frustration. But Lane’s smooth hands quickly calmed Cook down. With one out, Lane ranged to his right when Orleans outfielder Michael Crossland smacked a hard grounder toward the 5-6 gap in Chatham’s infield. Lane gloved the ball, tossed it off-balance to Mendoza at second and the two swiftly turned a 6-4-3 double play.

Those are the types of plays that have become routine for Lane at short.

“Just getting the experience,” Lane said of how he’s made improvements at shortstop this summer. “Getting the balls (hit) to my right, left, making the throws off one leg, just the different balls and the different experiences have helped me and made it easier throughout the time, for sure.”

In the same way Lane saved runs defensively, he saved a victory for Chatham by driving in the game-winning baserunners. Sometimes, all it takes is a home run and a few impressive individual efforts to cancel out a sloppy performance. That’s what the Anglers did Friday, courtesy of Lane, Freeman and Sharman — an unlikely trio.