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Navs Drop Final Home Game of Regular Season Monday

07/29/2024 7:30 PM

LYNN, Mass. — The North Shore Navigators fell to the Ocean State Waves 6-1 in their final home game of the New England Collegiate Baseball League regular season on Monday at Fraser Field.

North Shore entered Monday’s contest tied with Ocean State in the head-to-head season series, but the loss dropped the Navigators to 18-24 on the season while the Waves advanced to 19-22 and claimed the series tiebreaker.

“I wish we rallied for more runs today,” manager Bob Macaluso said. “We couldn’t get much going. I thought their starter (Peter Haas of Indiana) was good because we didn’t hit a hard ball off (him).”

The Navigators broke the Waves’ shutout in the eighth inning when Isaac Kim (UC Santa Barbara) smoked a base hit down the right-field line, scoring Ryan Gerety (Northeastern) easily from second base.

Gerety reached base four times in Sunday’s come-from-behind win over Martha’s Vineyard and carried that over into Monday, as he was the only Navigator to reach safely twice. The outfielder has now reached base in 12 of his last 13 games.

“He’s disciplined at the plate,” Macaluso said of Gerety. “He doesn’t chase much. … He has different ways to get on base, walking, bunting, and then he's a pretty good hitter.”

Zach Morris (Rhode Island) climbed the mound for his third start of the season for North Shore. The Gloucester native struggled in the opening frame, but after surrendering the second run, he settled in and retired six consecutive batters while finishing his outing with four strikeouts. 

Similar to Sunday’s contest, the Navigators found themselves behind after the opening frame as a base hit from Eric Genther (Rhode Island) and a sacrifice fly by Harrison Feinberg (Northeastern) put the Waves ahead 2-0.

Feinberg was the Waves’ best source of offense all game long, producing an RBI in each of his first two at-bats. The right-handed hitter finished the day 1-for-3 with two RBI.

Feinberg struck again in the third inning, sending a two-out base hit up the middle to score Genther for the second time. Tommy Meluskey (Oregon) then followed up with an RBI single of his own to secure the Waves’ second two-run inning and swell the lead to 4-0.

The Waves would add another run in the fifth on a balk, but unlike the Navigators’ last home game, they were unable to mount another comeback in the final innings.

The Navigators bullpen fared well during Monday’s contest as four relief pitchers threw at least one inning of scoreless baseball. Tommy Sullivan (Franklin Pierce), Justin Posnik (Bentley), Truman Pauley (Harvard) and Jack Volo (Georgetown) combined to pitch 4.1 innings with four combined strikeouts. Volo struck out the side while working the eighth.

The Navigators will look to keep their playoff hopes alive on Tuesday when they make their final visit of the season to Oak Bluffs to face the Martha’s Vineyard Sharks. First pitch from The Shark Tank is set for 7:05 p.m.