Navs Take Down Mountaineers in First Home Victory

By Jason Glick

LYNN, Mass. — Entering Tuesday, few teams in the New England Collegiate Baseball League were hotter than the North Shore Navigators. They steamrolled the North Adams SteepleCats 13-4 Saturday for their largest win this season and won their second consecutive road game Monday against the Newport Gulls with a 6-4 victory.

But the Navs (4-6) were still searching for the first home win of the season and accomplished that feat Tuesday in a 5-2 win over the Vermont Mountaineers (5-6) at Fraser Field. Left-hander Aidan Gelbsman (Boston College) played hero out of the bullpen with a season-high five strikeouts. Designated hitter Hudson Ellis (Oral Roberts) anchored North Shore's bats — which recorded a hit in all but one inning — with two doubles and two RBI.

The Mountaineers scored a first-inning run after three straight players reached base. Right fielder Alex Benevento (Brown) did so on a fielder's choice and scored for a 1-0 cushion. On the flip side, North Shore loaded its bases, courtesy of a walk, hit by pitch and first baseman Danati Fronduto's (San Jacinto) single to left-center, but Vermont escaped with a double play.

The Navs recovered defensively in the second, retiring the Mountaineers through four batters. At the plate, left fielder Jack Rickheim (Harvard) and shortstop Michael Brown (Hofstra) singled, but for the second straight inning, the Navigators left two-plus runners on base. The Mountaineers replicated that in the top of the third, but Brown halted them with an acrobatic grab for the third out.

Ellis skimmed the right foul line for his first double in the bottom of the third. He stole third and scored the first North Shore run on center fielder Hunter Kingsbury's (Bryant) RBI grounder to knot things at one. That intensity carried into the top of the fourth, retiring Vermont 1-2-3 thanks to starter Samuel Perry (UMass), who only conceded one run through four innings.

For the fourth consecutive frame, the Navs recorded a hit, as second baseman Tyler Shulman (Harvard) singled through an infield gap to advance Rickheim, who walked. A pair of Vermont hit-by-pitch miscues scored Rickheim for a 2-1 lead.

The lead didn't last long because the Mountaineers strung together a triad of singles before Benevento's sacrifice fly scored center fielder Matthew Minckler (Delaware) in the top of the fifth. The Navs rebounded, as catcher Daniel Leikus (Rhode Island) nearly nicked the left-field wall for his fourth double this season.

Gelbsman entered out of the bullpen during the fifth and delivered three straight swinging strikeouts in the ensuing frame. North Shore's bats capitalized, as Brown mirrored Ellis' third-inning hit for an RBI double, scoring Shulman, who walked. Ellis returned the favor with his second double of the game to score Brown and double Vermont's run total at 4-2.

The Navs pitched their second straight scoreless inning during the seventh, and at the plate, third baseman Simmi Whitehill (Monmouth) nabbed North Shore's 10th hit. Shulman scored him on a sacrifice fly for a three-run lead.

The eighth stanza saw two Gelbsman strikeouts, retiring the Mountaineers 1-2-3, and offensively. Cam Freeman (Longwood) cleanly closed the Navs' first home win this season with two ninth-inning strikeouts.

The Navs continue their three-game homestand Wednesday against the Danbury Westerners. First pitch is set for 6:05 p.m.