Their annual Fourth of July home-and-home rivalry series begins tonight.

Chatham and Orleans will head into it as the hottest teams in the league.

The Firebirds won their fifth in a row on Tuesday with a 7-5 victory over Hyannis. The Anglers are riding a three-game streak after a 3-2 win over Harwich on Tuesday. Orleans leads the East Division, while Chatham is tied with Y-D for second place, three points back.

Orleans’ win on Tuesday wasn’t vintage as the Harbor Hawks actually did some damage against the normally dominant Firebird bullpen. But Orleans prevailed all the same. Starter Austin Love (North Carolina) went four shutout innings with five strikeouts. After Hyannis scored five runs from the fifth through the seventh innings, Isaac Esqueda (USC) closed the door with two scoreless innings of relief.

Max Troiani (Bentley) had another big game to lead the offense, going 3-for-5 with an RBI. He has five multi-hit games in his last nine and is batting .362.

For Chatham, Tuesday’s win was of the comeback variety. After giving up single runs in the first and second innings, the Anglers didn’t allow another, then scored single runs of their own in the fifth, seventh and eighth to take the victory. Parker Scott (Oklahoma State), Austin Vernon (North Carolina Central) and Dawson Merryman (Midland College) delivered scoreless relief work. An RBI groundout by Ben Ramirez (USC) plated what proved to be the winning run.

Chatham is home for the first game of the set with Orleans, tonight at 7. The Firebirds host the Anglers on the Fourth of July, also at 7.

Falmouth 12, Brewster 7

Falmouth smacked a whopping 19 hits to out-slug Brewster. Taylor Smith (Grayson County CC) hit a grand slam for the biggest blow. Austin Masel (Holy Cross) had four hits, Zack DeLoach (Texas A&M) went 3-for-3 for the second straight game, Trei Cruz (Rice) had three hits and Tyler Ras (Alabama) also had three hits. Hayden Cantrelle (Louisiana Lafayette) went 2-for-4 and scored three runs. Aidan Maldonado (Illinois) was credited with the win in relief. Brewster did plenty of damage, too, with home runs by Marcos Castanon (UC Santa Barbara), Eric Foggo (Stetson) and Justin Vought (Maryland).

Cotuit 4, Bourne 1

Cotuit won its second straight. With Wareham losing two in a row, the Kettleers have taken over first place in the West by a point. Strong pitching set the course in this one. Joseph Nahas (Georgia Southern) struck out five in six innings and now leads the league in Ks. Two-way player Casey Schmitt (San Diego State), who started the game at third base, pitched 2.2 scoreless innings of relief with four strikeouts to finish off the win. At the plate, Nick Gonzales (New Mexico State) went 3-for-5 to push his league-best batting average to .377. Parker Chavers (Coastal Carolina) and Joey Loperfido (Duke) also had three hits.

Y-D 3, Wareham 1

Y-D bounced back from a blowout loss to Chatham with a win over the Gatemen. Two runs in the seventh off a Tate Samuelson (Cal Poly) home run and a Wyatt Young (Pepperdine) RBI single broke a 1-1 tie. Young had two hits for the third time in his last four games and is hitting .372, second-best in the league. Reigning CCBL Pitcher of the Week John Beller (USC) allowed one run in five innings but did not factor in the decision. Cullen Kafka (Oregon) earned the win with three scoreless innings of relief. Taylor Dollard (Cal Poly) earned his second save. For Wareham Brandon Pfaadt (Bellarmine) had pitched 12 scoreless innings to start his summer. He allowed two earned in seven innings this time.

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