LYNN, Mass. -- The Newport Gulls held off the North Shore Navigators’ attempted comeback in the later innings and posted a 4-1 victory in Sunday night’s New England Collegiate Baseball League (NECBL) game at a rainy Fraser Field.

The Navs left two baserunners aboard in the eighth inning and brought the tying run to the plate in the ninth before falling to 9-13 on the season. Newport, which leads the Coastal Division and overall NECBL standings by five games, is 18-4.

Second baseman Luca Trigiani (William & Mary) went 2-for-4, and third baseman Jake Berger (Harvard) drove in the lone Navs run on a ringing triple into the right-center gap in the sixth inning. North Shore was limited to five hits as a team.

Beverly native Brayden Clark (Salve Regina) kept North Shore in the game across the first four innings of two-run ball and has now allowed just three earned runs over his 21 innings this season.

Five of the six Navs relievers that followed Clark logged scoreless appearances, including Colin Brodeur (Florida Southwestern State) who has put up zeroes in each of his last three games.

Newport scored a first-inning run on center fielder Anthony Donofrio’s (Quinnipiac) leadoff single followed by a pair of North Shore errors. Donofrio got to second base on a subsequent throwing error and scored when shortstop Kolby Branch (Baylor) reached due to the resulting error on his swinging bunt in front of the plate.

Clark settled down after allowing the early run to the league’s best offense, retiring the next three batters he faced and working around a one-out single in the second. Right fielder Tyler Hare (Georgia Tech) hit a sac fly to right that scored Donofrio after Newport’s first of two infield singles in the inning.

Gulls southpaw JD Thompson (Vanderbilt) held the home team silent through the first 3.2 innings, which included striking out the first nine batters of the game. Shortstop Henry Kaczmar (Ohio State) hit a two-out infield single on a comebacker off the pitcher to end Newport’s no-hit bid in the fourth, but he advanced no further on the basepaths.

Trigiani recorded his first hit with two outs in the fifth before the Navs got a run back in the sixth, helping to chase Thompson as the conclusion of the inning. After designated hitter DJ Pacheco (Richmond) reached on a ground-ball throwing error, Berger ripped a triple into the power alley to cut the Newport lead to 2-1.

However, the Gulls put the game out of reach with a pair of seventh-inning runs as seven batters came to the plate. Designated hitter Trent Farquhar (Michigan State) hit a one-out RBI triple and scored on a following wild pitch.

The Navs did not go down without a fight. Catcher Jackson Hornung (Kansas State) hit a two-out double in the seventh, while walks to Berger and Kaczmar started a threat that was extinguished with closer Grant Umberger (Virginia Tech) striking out the side in the eighth. 

The best chance to make a dent on the scoreboard was the last. Trigiani hit a one-out infield single before right fielder Jake McElroy (Holy Cross) and Pacheco walked to load the bases, but Berger flew out to end the game.

Thompson earned the win in his first start for Newport, fanning 12 across six innings of three-hit ball over which he allowed an unearned run. Umberger worked around four walks and struck out three in two, one-hit innings to post the save. Donofrio and Farquhar were both 3-for-5 offensively.

The Navs return to the road for the next three games starting Monday night against the Sanford Mainers. First pitch from historic Goodall Park is set for 5 p.m.