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First-Place Navs Edge Past Westfield, 3-1

06/14/2019 7:53 PM

By Joshua Kummins

LYNN, Mass. -- The North Shore Navigators closed out their fourth consecutive win Friday night, scoring single runs in three different innings en route to a 3-1 decision over the Westfield Starfires in Futures Collegiate Baseball League action at Fraser Field.

Despite scoring just once with the benefit of a hit, North Shore improved to 9-3 on the season and regained sole possession of first place in the league standings as a result of Brockton’s loss to Worcester. Westfield fell to 4-10 as it lost for the fourth consecutive game.

Third baseman Tyler MacGregor (Columbia) paced North Shore’s seven-hit attack, going 2-for-4 with an RBI on a two-out single to add insurance to an eighth-inning lead. Matt Bergeron (Saint Joseph’s of Maine) earned his second win of the summer after working around 10 hits and a walk during seven innings of one-run ball.

Westfield starter Jack Fox (Emerson) cruised through the majority of his third start of the summer, but the Navs managed an unearned run to take the lead in the second inning. Second baseman Dominic Freeberger (UNC Asheville) hit a leadoff double into right-center field and scored after right fielder Kade Kretzschmar (Dartmouth) reached on an error.

In the first run-scoring frame, Fox had fanned back-to-back batters with Freeberger in scoring position before Westfield first baseman Andrew Ciacciarelli (American International) was unable to handle third baseman Christian Walsh’s (UMass) throw across the diamond on Kretzschmar’s ground ball.

Westfield remained in a one-run game as Fox struck out seven North Shore batters through the first three frames. The Starfires squared the score in the fourth when Walsh hit a two-out double preceding designated hitter Tommy Quinn’s (Stonehill) run-scoring single.

North Shore manufactured another run during a fifth inning that began with catcher Louis Olivieri (Central Alabama CC) drawing a walk. After catcher Colin Wetterau (St. John’s) laid down a sacrifice bunt to first base, Olivieri stole third and took home on Starfire catcher Angelo D’Acunto’s (Holy Cross) throwing error.

Fox exited the game after striking out nine and allowing one earned run on six hits in seven innings. The Navs tagged Westfield reliever Patrick Hannon (Franklin Pierce) for a run in the eighth as MacGregor lined a single to right, scoring pinch runner Joey Kalafut (Edgewood) from second. Kalafut replaced left fielder Sean Lawlor (Flagler) after a one-out hit by pitch.

Jake Gigliotti (Northeastern) followed Bergeron with a 1-2-3 eighth in his third relief appearance of the summer. Marblehead’s Beau Dana (Dickinson) then retired the Westfield side for the final time in the ninth to extend his league-leading save total to six.

Quinn, right fielder Sean Murphy (Gettysburg), and left fielder Thomas Joyce (Merrimack) all went 2-for-4 as part of Westfield’s 10-hit night.

During the game, the Navs wore their Lynn Sailors throwback jerseys for the first time at Fraser this summer. The jerseys honor the former Seattle Mariners minor-league affiliate that played in Lynn during the early 1980s and will be auctioned off at the end of the season to benefit the Lynn YMCA.

The Navs visit Brockton at 6:35 p.m. Saturday before returning home for a Father’s Day doubleheader against Worcester. Sunday’s first pitch at Fraser Field is set for 3 p.m.