So many things happened in that simple split.

– First, Chris Lanzilli (Wake Forest) hit three home runs in the opening game of the twin bil, becoming the second Mariner to make such history this season.

– Then, Jacob Palisch (Stanford) dominated again and took over the league lead in ERA.

– Finally, when the second game concluded, the Mariners clinched the final up-for-grabs playoff spot in the league.

Lanzilli would be the lone headliner on most days. A few weeks ago, Lanzilli’s Harwich teammate Niko Kavadas (Notre Dame) became the ninth player in Cape League history to hit three home runs in a game, and now, soon after, we’ve got a tenth.

Since the game was part of a doubleheader, it was just seven innings, but Lanzilli still made history, hitting the three homers in his only three at-bats. He went deep in the first inning, the third inning and the sixth inning. Lanzilli has been swinging an extremely hot bat lately, with 14 hits over his last six games, but this was a new level. Remarkably, he was hitting .186 when that six-game ride began. Now he’s hitting .303 with four home runs. What a turnaround. Congrats to Chris.

Despite Lanzilli’s power show, Harwich lost that game, but they had Palisch going in the nightcap. The lefty followed up the first complete game shutout since 2017 and his no-hitter with six spotless innings as the Mariners beat Brewster 6-0. Palisch allowed seven hits but didn’t walk a batter and struck out five, always escaping the trouble he found.

Palisch previously hadn’t qualified for the ERA crown, but he’s in the mix now and appeared at the top of the leaderboard with a 0.77 mark.

Chris Galland (Boston College) and Cory Acton (Florida) homered to back Palisch, and Joe Boyle (Notre Dame) pitched the final inning to close out the win and send the Mariners to the playoffs.

Orleans 8, Harwich 5; Orleans 4, Chatham 0

Chatham was swept in a split doubleheader with Brewster and Orleans, opening the door for . . . the Orleans Firebirds? It’s been Chatham and Y-D in the top two spots for a while now, but Orleans has been lying in wait. And with Y-D also losing Tuesday, it’s the Firebirds who have moved into a first-place tie with Chatham. Their busy day started with the 8-5 win over Harwich. Shay Whitcomb (UC San Diego) went 3-for-4 with his eighth home run of the summer, going deep for the fourth time in his last nine games. Max Troiani (Bentley) added two hits and two RBI. In the second game, Tanner Murray (UC Davis) and Trevin Esquerra (Loyola Marymount) drove in two runs each to back dominant pitching. Jared Shuster (Wake Forest) went five scoreless innings with seven strikeouts and Jeffrey Praml (Southern New Hampshire) pitched two scoreless to finish it off.

Bourne 14, Wareham 6

Can you really challenge a three-homer game for best performance of the night? Zavier Warren (Central Michigan) might have a case. The Bourne star went 5-for-6 with a double, a triple, three runs scored and three RBI as the Braves blasted Wareham 14-6. Warren has been a breakout prospect this summer and a recent surge has given him the production to match. With hits in six of his last seven games, he’s turned solid numbers into great numbers. And they get an even bigger bump after Tuesday’s action. Warren is now hitting .310 with an .828 OPS. Warren had help from Ben Rivoli (Virginia), who had two hits and four RBI. Nick Dombkowski (Hartford) allowed just an unearned run in four innings for the win. Bourne has won three in a row.

Falmouth 6, Cotuit 4

The Commodores are guaranteed to finish with the best regular-season record in the league after a win over Cotuit and Chatham’s two losses. Falmouth trailed 4-3 after four but tied the game in the fifth and took the lead for good in the seventh. Matheu Nelson (Florida State) homered, while Zach DeLoach (Texas A&M) and Blake Dunn (Western Michigan) each had two hits and an RBI. Aidan Maldonado (Illinois) earned the win in relief of Franco Aleman (St John’s River), with Tyler Ras (Alabama) getting the save. Matthew Mervis (Duke) and Oraj Anu (Wallace CC) both homered for Cotuit.

Hyannis 1, Y-D 0

It’s been a really rough season for the Harbor Hawks, but they get a legitimate highlight here. Against one of the best hitting teams in the league, Tommy McCollum (Wingate) and Landon Kelly (Memphis) combined on a one-hit shutout. McCollum, making just his third appearance since coming on board in mid-July, allowed a hit in the first inning and nothing else across six frames. He struck out four and walked one. Kelly didn’t strike out a batter in his relief stint, but was flawless nonetheless, going nine up, nine down to finish off the win. Hyannis scored the game’s lone run in the fourth after Trevor Hauver (Arizona) doubled and came home on an error.

What to Watch

Someone will take sole possession of first place in the East when Chatham hosts Orleans.

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