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Bristol Upends Navs Thursday at Fraser

06/16/2022 8:15 PM

LYNN, Mass. -- The Bristol Blues scored in seven different innings and totaled 12 hits on their way to a 15-3 win over the North Shore Navigators in Thursday night’s New England Collegiate Baseball League (NECBL) game at Fraser Field.

North Shore slipped to 1-7 after its third consecutive loss, while West Division-leading Bristol is 7-2.

First baseman Connor Bertsch (Dartmouth) led the Navs offense going 2-for-3 with two runs scored, while third baseman Brady O’Brien (Colby) and second baseman Jake Gustin (Bryant) each recorded a hit and drove in a run.

The Blues scored twice in the first inning and once in the second against Navs starter Graham Jeffries (Salve Regina) before Bertsch walked, advanced to second on a passed ball and scored on the St. John’s Prep graduate O’Brien’s double down the left-field line.

After Bristol put up a pair of runs in the fourth and fifth innings, the Navs put up their final two runs in the bottom half of the fifth. Bertsch opened the run-scoring frame with a base hit and crossed the plate on a wild pitch. McElroy continued the inning with a single to right and scored on Gustin’s double down the line in right.

Bristol’s biggest inning of the night was a five-run sixth in which it sent 10 men to the plate. Right fielder Ryan Wilson (Davidson) punctuated the inning and his 3-for-5, five-RBI night with a two-run double. The Blues closed the game with two runs in the eighth and one more in the ninth.

Shortstop Max Viera (Northeastern) hit a one-out single in the eighth and Bertsch doubled in the ninth, but the Navs weren’t able to scratch across another run.

Wilson and shortstop Chaz Myers (Pacific) had three hits apiece while Wilson, left fielder A.J. Gaich (Yale) and center fielder Griffin Arnone (Elon) all scored three runs.

Carson Kohls (Penn State) earned the win for Bristol, tossing five innings of three-hit ball with six strikeouts.

The Navs visit Vermont’s capital city of Montpelier for a 6:30 p.m. Friday contest against the league-leading Mountaineers before returning home to host the Newport Gulls for three weekend games over Saturday and Sunday.