Here is @RyanCervone10 (@GoNUbaseball) post-game with @emma_carman_ after the Navigators played the Northeast Yankees Area Code team at Fraser Field in a scrimmage this evening! pic.twitter.com/Jf4r1JvPbg

— North Shore Navigators (@NSNavigators) July 21, 2020

By Joshua Kummins

LYNN, Mass. -- Taking a break from Futures Collegiate Baseball League play on Monday night, the North Shore Navigators dropped an 8-5 decision to the Northeast Yankees Scout Team in an exhibition game at Fraser Field.

The Navs carry a 7-7 record into Tuesday night’s return to Futures League play against the Brockton Rox. With the scrimmage against a team of top high school and college prospects from the New England states, New York and New Jersey now in the books, North Shore is scheduled to play four of its six games at the home confines of Fraser this week.

Right fielder Ryan Cervone (Northeastern) highlighted the Navs’ offense with a three-run home run in the second inning, while first baseman Cam Climo (UMass Lowell) also hit safely and was one of five different North Shore players to score a run.

Following Navs righty Colin Jaena’s (Stonehill) 1-2-3 start to the game, the Yankees jumped on the scoreboard first with a three-run second inning. Third baseman Ian Fair (Northeastern) led off the frame with an infield single and scored on left fielder Chris Galland’s (Boston College) single three batters later. Designated hitter Dante Baldelli (Boston College) extended the lead to three with a two-run home run to center field.

North Shore’s first four batters of the second inning reached base and helped to tie the score at 3-3. Climo hit a leadoff double inside the third base bag to start up the offense before designated hitter Alex Brickman (Dayton) was hit by a pitch. Cervone tied the game with one swing of the bat in the next at-bat, dropping a three-run shot to right off Phillips Andover rising sophomore Thomas White, a Rowley native who is the top-ranked 2023 high school prospect in the country.

The Navs tipped the score in their favor in the following frame as center fielder Jack Whorf (UMass) reached on an error and stole second to begin the inning. Third baseman Logan Bravo (Harvard) drew a walk during the plate appearance that followed and was then caught in a rundown between first and second base, but Whorf was able to cross the plate with North Shore’s fourth run before the final out was recorded.

The Yankees put together the game’s most productive inning in the fifth, plating four runs that ultimately decided the final score. First baseman Chad Knight (Duke) delivered the key hit with a two-out, two-run homer to center field.

Center fielder Joshua Baez’s (Dexter Southfield/Vanderbilt) infield single in the seventh inning added another insurance run for the Yankees, but the Navs got it back during the bottom half on Bravo’s bases-loaded walk. Catcher Dylan January (Franklin Pierce) drew a leadoff walk and advanced on a throwing error and shortstop Juan Martinez’s (New Mexico JC) fielder’s choice grounder before scoring North Shore’s final run.

After Jaena dealt three strikeouts over the course of his two-inning start, four members of North Shore’s bullpen posted scoreless appearances. Swampscott native Luke Marshall (Stonehill) struck out a pair during a clean frame before lefty Will Carpenter (Fisher) fanned three over two innings of two-hit, one-run (unearned) ball. Max Meier (Stanford) and Marblehead native Beau Dana (Dickinson) both pitched clean innings with two strikeouts apiece.

Though the Yankees recorded eight total hits and benefitted from four errors in the game, North Shore pitchers combined to retire 13 of the last 15 batters they faced including each of the last seven. The game featured four 1-2-3 innings from Navs hurlers.

The Navs loaded the bases in the ninth as Martinez, Whorf and Bravo all registered free passes before an out was recorded, but Baez settled down and struck out the next three batters he faced to post a final zero and the save for the Yankees.