HOLYOKE, Mass. 一 The North Shore Navigators scored two runs in the first inning and two more in the 10th en route to their first win of the young New England Collegiate Baseball League (NECBL) season, defeating the host Valley Blue Sox 4-3 on Saturday night at MacKenzie Stadium.
North Shore improved to 1-3, while Valley fell to 2-1 after entering the night as the lone unbeaten team in the NECBL that had seen action thus far.
Left fielder Sam Parks (Stonehill) scored the winning run in the 10th following pinch hitter Jack Gold’s (Pomona-Pitzer) sacrifice bunt. Valley relief pitcher Andrew Wertz (Salve Regina) fielded the perfectly placed ball and threw it down the right-field line, allowing Gold to reach second and Parks to score. After Gold took third on a failed pickoff attempt, first baseman Brody Dalton (St. Johns River State) added an insurance RBI on a sacrifice fly to right.
Parks reached base in four of his five plate appearances and scored two runs as North Shore’s leadoff hitter, while third baseman Simmi Whitehill (Monmouth) produced a multi-hit performance going 2-for-4.
North Andover native Ryan Griffin (Northeastern) earned the win in his season debut, stranding three runners in scoring position across two innings of scoreless relief. Cole Yennaco (Merrimack) worked around a one-out walk and Valley left fielder Michael Lucarelli’s (Penn State) sacrifice fly RBI to post the save.
Trey Yesu got North Shore off to a solid start, pitching a season-high five innings of one-run, four-hit ball. Ray McNaught (Quinnipiac) also turned in his second straight scoreless relief outing, while John Whitney (Samford) made his North Shore debut before the final innings.
North Shore opened the scoring for the first time in a game this summer, taking a 2-0 lead in the first. Parks hit a leadoff infield single and reached scoring position as second baseman Conor Moriarty (Bowdoin) was hit by a pitch. Following a successful double steal, Parks scored on a passed ball before a failed pickoff allowed Moriarty to scamper home.
After Yesu fanned a pair while working around a leadoff single in the first, Valley halved North Shore’s lead on shortstop Michael Elko’s (Richmond) sacrifice fly to center. Lucarelli led off the inning with a sharp single and stole second before scoring the first run for the home team.
Yesu finished his solid outing by stranding two on base in the fifth. The righty benefited from a key defensive play as Parks made a great catch to take a home run away from Valley third baseman Michael O’Conor (Eastern Illinois) against the left-field wall.
The North Shore defense also came up big an inning later as McNaught finished a 1-2-3 frame. Center fielder Brooks Wright (Louisiana) fielded Lucarelli’s double that landed deep in the outfield, but teamed up with shortstop Jack Rickheim (Harvard) and Whitehill for a relay that cut the Valley runner down at third to end the inning.
Like Parks, center fielder Tyler Bak (Wofford) was an on-base machine on Valley’s side, going 3-for-3 with two walks. His two-out single in the seventh scored Elko to force the extra frame, though he was kept from crossing home plate. The Blue Sox left 10 men on base.
The Navs complete their two-game, cross-divisional road trip on Sunday afternoon when they visit the Mystic Schooners for a 4:05 p.m. first pitch at Fitch High School in Groton, Conn.