Navs Homer Three Times in Wednesday Loss at Keene

KEENE, N.H. — The North Shore Navigators slugged three home runs, but dropped a 12-6 decision to the host Keene SwampBats in Wednesday night's New England Collegiate Baseball League game at Alumni Field.

Catcher Jace Roossien (Boston College), right fielder Grant Hunter (Binghamton) and center fielder Hunter Kingsbury (Bryant) all homered for North Shore (1-4), which saw four of its seven hits go for extra bases. Hunter went 2-for-4 en route to his second multi-hit game out of four so far this summer. 

The Navs scored five of their six runs over the final third of the game while relievers Jack Korthas (Columbia) and Koby Seelig (Columbia) each pitched two innings of scoreless and hitless relief. Korthas struck out four of the eight total batters he faced.

After stranding North Shore shortstop Hudson Ellis (Oral Roberts) as a leadoff baserunner, Keene drew first blood on designated hitter Jackson Marshall's (UConn) sacrifice fly in the bottom of the first. Two walks and a single set the table for the RBI opportunity, but Lynn native Josh Doney (UMass Lowell) limited the damage with two strikeouts in his first Navigators start.

The hosts broke the game open with a five-run second inning, which saw a single and a walk precede a three-run homer by left fielder Griffin Enis (Virginia). After Keene put two more runners aboard, Marshall knocked a two-out RBI single and a wild pitch plated another run.

Home runs in both halves of the third changed the score. Nahant's own Roossien got North Shore on the scoreboard with a first-pitch homer towards the big red barn in right field before Keene regained its six-run lead when Enis cleared the center-field fence for another solo shot.

In the fourth, Navs reliever Aidan Gelbsman (Boston College) retired three straight SwampBats after the second Enis homer, but shortstop Collin Anderson's (Duke) two-out double inside the right-field line and two wild pitches extended the Keene lead to 10-1. Third baseman Jackson Smith's (Cincinnati) knock up the middle added a fourth SwampBat run of the inning.

Center fielder Luke Boykin (Samford) tripled into the left-field corner and scored on a wild pitch to up the Keene lead to 12-1 in the fifth. Korthas escaped further damage, dialing up a strikeout and a 4-6-3 double play ball with second baseman Tyler Shulman (Harvard) and Ellis on the middle infield.

Korthas silenced the Keene offense for the first time in the sixth, working around back-to-back leadoff runners to strike out the side. The Navs offense then backed up the southpaw, as Hunter clubbed a solo homer to deep center field to begin the top of the next half-inning.

After Seelig worked out of a bases-loaded, no-out jam in the eighth, North Shore posted its most potent offensive inning in the ninth. Peabody native first baseman Danati Fronduto (San Jacinto) and Hunter started the frame with back-to-back singles, and after Conor Moriarty (Bowdoin) drew a walk to load the bases, Jack Rickheim's (Harvard) ground ball brought home a run.

Then, a Daniel Leikus (Rhode Island) infield single kept the game alive before the Byfield native Kingsbury clubbed a three-run homer off the scoreboard in right-center field for a three-run bomb.

Enis homered twice, drove in four runs and reached base five times for Keene, which remained undefeated on the season (4-0-1) following its second win over North Shore.

The Navs return to Fraser Field to begin a two-game homestand on Thursday night against the Valley Blue Sox. First pitch is set for 6:05 p.m.