Hetmyer, Stoinis and Jasdeep powers Seattle Orcas to huge win

Seattle Orcas jumped to second place on the MLC 2026 standings following a massive 88-run victory over the Washington Freedom at the Oakland Coliseum. A powerful batting performance headlined by Shimron Hetmyer's unbeaten 79 and Marcus Stoinis's death-overs blitz saw the Orcas post 227. After that, Jasdeep Singh returned 5 for 24, eliminating a formidable Freedom lineup for just 139 runs. Back after a five-day break following their record-breaking win over MI New York, the Freedom opted to chase in Oakland and faced a version of themselves from that evening in Dallas. Orcas openers Tim Seifert and Shayan Jahangir added 59 in 6.1 overs with Seifert adding 37 of those runs before falling to Ian Holland. Jahangir was let go quickly after that, but Matthew Breetzke and Hetmyer quickly formed another partnership. Breetzke turned up the heat and hit three sixes in his 23-ball 32, despite Hetmyer maintaining a rapid scoring pace throughout, after a slow start in which he made 10 of 12 shots. At the end of the 16th over, the Orcas only had 150 on the board, despite the southpaw scoring a century off 24 balls. The wrath began when Stoinis faced Holland, who was 2 for 19 in his first three innings. In the 17th over, Holland kept trying to bowl the yorker, but he ended up bowling full deliveries right in Stoinis's swinging arc. Stoinis hit those deliveries, including some that were off-pace, straight to the sight screen, scoring five sixes. After hitting four in a row, he missed a slower ball into the surface and swung too early. He still hit another six in a row to end that over. Marco Jansen struck Stoinis out for 42 off 16 balls and caught Dasun Shanaka behind the next ball, but Hetmyer ended the innings with three sixes in a row in the final over. As many as 77 runs came from the last four overs, and an innings that seemed to just about inching towards the 200-mark, finished at 227. On a still-slow track, that was still an above-average score. The Washington Freedom have a strong batting lineup. But none of their batters started today. Steve Smith and Mitchell Owen, the openers, were cheaply defeated by Jasdeep and Baartman, respectively. In the fifth over, Jasdeep took three wickets, effectively securing the victory for the Orcas. They kept dropping wickets frequently. Jasdeep returned to get a fifer. The final defeat margin will have been even greater if Holland and Amila Aponso had not made minor cameo appearances.