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Navs Dealt One-Run Loss in Nashua, 5-4

07/24/2020 7:54 PM

By Joshua Kummins

NASHUA, N.H. -- After back-to-back games between the two teams were postponed due to rain, the Nashua Silver Knights scored three runs over their final two at-bats and edged past the North Shore Navigators, 5-4, in Friday night’s Futures Collegiate Baseball League contest at Historic Holman Stadium.

The Navs slipped back to the .500 mark at 8-8 on the season, while second-place Nashua improved to 10-7 with its third win of the season against North Shore.

Designated hitter Logan Bravo (Harvard) and first baseman Cam Climo (UMass Lowell) both went 2-for-4, combining for four of North Shore’s six hits. Bravo scored twice and drove in three runs on a third-inning home run that allowed the Navs to jump out to an early 3-0 lead.

Nashua starter Joe Quintal (Fordham) retired eight of the first nine Navs he faced, working around a one-out walk to shortstop Cody Morissette (Boston College) in the first inning. North Shore’s damage came on one swing of the bat later in the third frame as Bravo slammed a three-run homer towards the scoreboard in left field after center fielder Ben Malgeri (Northeastern) reached on a two-out error and Morissette drew his second straight walk.

The Silver Knights responded quickly and cut their deficit to 3-2 with a pair of unearned runs across against the Navs’ Cedric Gillette (Merrimack) in the back half of the third. Nashua shortstop Nick Shumski (Merrimack) followed a pair of two-out walks and an error with a line single past the third base bag before catcher Dominic Keegan (Vanderbilt) drew a bases-loaded free pass to force home another run two batters later.

The next three innings were scoreless for both sides. Gillette completed three innings of one-hit ball without allowing an earned run before Tom Chmielewski (Princeton) and Max Meier (Stanford) put up back-to-back zeroes to keep up the one-run game.

Nashua tipped the scoreboard in its favor for the first time in the seventh. After designated hitter Max Viera (Northeastern) hit a game-tying single three batters into the frame as part of his 2-for-2 day, second baseman Brady Day (Kansas State) drove in the go-ahead run on a ground ball to second base.

North Shore brought home another game-tying run an inning later. After Nashua called Steven Miller (Penn State) out of the bullpen, Bravo lined a double to right field, advanced on a passed ball and scored on Climo’s one-out single to left.

The visitors’ lead was short-lived as the Silver Knights brought home the winning run on catcher Dominic Keegan’s (Vanderbilt) homer inside the left-field foul pole. It was the Methuen native’s fourth long ball of the summer and first against the team for which he played in 2018.

For the Silver Knights, Miller nabbed his second win of the summer after striking out the last two batters he faced in the eighth inning. Griffin Young (Wheaton) fanned two in a 1-2-3 ninth to post the save.

North Shore lefty Patrick Hannon (Franklin Pierce) struck out two over the final inning, but he was charged with the loss after surrendering the homer to Keegan.

The Navs are set to start a six-game homestand at Fraser Field with back-to-back games this weekend. That stretch begins at 6 p.m. Saturday against the Brockton Rox.