NEWPORT, R.I. -- The North Shore Navigators were unable to take advantage of another strong starting pitching performance as they were held to just three hits in a 2-0 loss to the Newport Gulls in Friday night’s New England Collegiate Baseball League game at historic Cardines Field.

North Shore fell to 2-7 while Newport upped its Coastal Division-leading record to 8-1.

Beverly native Brayden Clark (Salve Regina) turned in another strong start for the Navs, dealing four scoreless innings before Newport posted its only offense during a two-run fifth. 

All told, Clark struck out three over his five innings of two-run, five-hit ball. 

Second baseman Brendan Jones (Holy Cross), Jake McElroy (Holy Cross) and shortstop Henry Kaczmar (Ohio State) had North Shore’s hits. McElroy, whose 125 career games played as a Navigator are the second-most in franchise history, recorded a pinch-hit single in the ninth.

The two teams breezed through the first half of the game in under an hour as Clark and Newport counterpart Kevin Seitter (Quinnipiac) put up zero after zero until the fifth.

A double play erased Jones following a leadoff single in the fourth. The Navs put two aboard in the next inning as Kaczmar doubled and right fielder Stan DeMartinis III (Bentley) reached on catcher’s interference, but Seitter dialed back for consecutive strikeouts to end the threat.

Meanwhile, Clark struck out two in a 1-2-3 first before Kaczmar turned a 6-3 double play that erased a leadoff single by Gulls first baseman Sam Kulasingam (Air Force) in the second. The right-hander from Beverly retired the side in order in both the third and fourth as well, but Newport finally drew first blood in the bottom of the fifth.

In Newport’s fifth, Kulasingam ripped a leadoff double into left and scored on shortstop Kolby Branch’s (Baylor) single in the next at-bat. Clark recovered to retire the next two Guils, but right fielder Tyler Hare (Georgia Tech) lined a two-out double to increase the score to 2-0.

After Clark got out of the fifth, the Navs relief duo of Will Jones (Northeastern) and David Hagaman (West Virginia) limited Newport to two hits across the final three innings. Jones struck out a pair in two frames.

For Newport, Seitter pitched six, two-hit innings with nine strikeouts to win for the second time in as many starts, while Wyatt Danilowicz (Louisville) pitched a scoreless ninth inning to post a save. Kulasingam was 2-for-3 and scored a run.

The Navs' scheduled Saturday road game against the Vermont Mountaineers in Montpelier has been postponed due to impending inclement weather. The team will return to Fraser Field to host Newport at 5:05 p.m. Sunday.