Navs Fall Sunday at Ocean State

SOUTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. — Three straight scoring innings propelled the Ocean State Waves to a 6-3 win over the visiting North Shore Navigators in Sunday afternoon's New England Collegiate Baseball League game at Old Mountain Field.

Third baseman Jason Bello (Dayton) went 2-for-4 in his first multi-hit game of the summer to help lead North Shore's offense. Catcher Jay Slater (Northwestern) was responsible for the team's only RBI, while right fielder Grayson Carpenter (Dayton) had a leadoff hit and scored a run.

The Navs received strong outings from the back end of their bullpen, as Charley Bergsma (Harvard) pitched three innings of one-run ball with four strikeouts and Samuel Perry (UMass) pitched a scoreless closing frame.

North Shore (6-8) has now dropped back-to-back games since a five-game win streak. 

North Shore jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first. Carpenter hit a leadoff single off the second base bag before first baseman Maddix Simpson (Ohio State) and shortstop Michael Brown (Hofstra) reached on back-to-back errors. Brown's grounder in the 3-4 hole was thrown away, allowing him to reach safely and Carpenter to score the opening run. Two batters later, Slater added an RBI grounder for a second run off Ocean State starter Dylan Causey (Southern Miss).

Navs starting pitcher John Hegarty (Cornell) opened the game with strikeouts during consecutive 1-2-3 innings, but the hosts knotted the score in the third. After Ocean State designated hitter Will Mahala (Virginia) knocked a leadoff double, he stole third and scored on an overthrow on his stolen base attempt. Left fielder Tommy Meluskey (New Mexico State) followed with an RBI single.

The Waves used a three-run fifth to break the game open, with Meluskey's two-out, two-run single punctuating the frame. Before the big hit, a double and a walk with one out set the stage for third baseman Cam Papetti's (Bryant) go-ahead RBI double down the right-field line.

As the scoreboard turned to the fifth, left fielder Danny Flynn (Northeastern) manufactured North Shore's third run. The Danvers native worked a full count and drew a leadoff walk, stole second and third, and scored on Simpson's grounder to second.

After Ocean State capped the scoring on shortstop Justin Hackett's (Bryant) two-out RBI single in the fifth, Bergsma put up back-to-back scoreless innings to keep the Navs within striking distance. Perry worked around a one-out walk and a two-out single in the eighth, posting up a zero with an inning-ending strikeout. 

The Navs brought the tying run to the plate in the ninth after Brown's two-out infield single and designated hitter Anderson French's (Dallas Baptist) walk, but Ocean State's Trey Telfer (San Diego State) finished the save.

The Navs are scheduled to begin a stretch of three straight games against North Division opponents when they welcome the Keene SwampBats to Fraser Field for the second time at 6:05 p.m. Monday.