LYNN, Mass. (July 29, 2025) 一 The North Shore Navigators saw their New England Collegiate Baseball League playoff hopes come to an end with 4-3 and 11-0 losses to the visiting North Adams SteepleCats in Tuesday doubleheader action at Fraser Field.
North Shore slipped to 15-28 on the summer, while North Adams improved to 21-22 as it tunes up to be the No. 3 seed in the North Division when the postseason chase for the Fay Vincent Sr. Cup officially begins later this week.
Third baseman Davis Baker (Penn) highlighted the day with back-to-back multi-hit games, homering in game one before doubling in two of his first three at-bats in the nightcap. Baker, who leads the Navs with 12 RBI on the season, went 4-for-7 across the two games.
In a change from the team’s original schedule, the Navs will conclude the 2025 season at Fraser Field when the Danbury Westerners visit for a 1:05 p.m. matinee. The game was originally scheduled to be played at Rogers Park in Danbury, Conn.
Game 1: North Adams 4, North Shore 3
Baker and left fielder Alec Welshans (La Salle) both recorded extra-base hits as part of their 2-for-3 lines, all supporting Cole Yennaco’s (Merrimack) seven-inning complete game on the mound. Baker brought North Shore back within 3-2 on a two-run home run to right field in the fourth inning and also scored twice, while Welshans doubled two batters ahead of the big swing.
Yennaco pitched the Navs’ first complete game of at least seven innings since 2021 in his third start of the summer, allowing two earned runs on seven hits and one walk while striking out two.
North Adams led 3-0 through three innings, scoring first on a multi-base fielding error in the outfield following second baseman Gabriel Natividad’s (Winthrop) single in the second. Center fielder Alex Mendes (Mount St. Mary’s) followed with an RBI sacrifice fly. Natividad made it a three-run game on a sac fly of his own an inning later.
After Yennaco dealt his first of two 1-2-3 innings in the fourth, one swing of Baker’s bat brought the Navs back within one run, as the round-tripper drove in Welshans following his leadoff double to left. Second baseman Simmi Whitehill (Monmouth) continued the inning by ripping a two-out triple to center, but two North Shore batters were left aboard.
Baker also sparked North Shore’s game-tying sixth inning, reaching on an infield single before stealing second, advancing to third on a balk and scoring on an RBI grounder by center fielder Sam Parks (Stonehill).
The SteepleCats took the lead for good in the seventh, as designated hitter Damian Rodriguez (Iona) drew a one-out walk and scored on left fielder Billy Howard’s (Ashland) triple into the deep right-field corner.
In North Shore’s half of the seventh, Welshans was hit by a one-out pitch, stole second and took third on a wild pitch, but Bobby Stang (Dayton) struck out three in a scoreless inning to save a victory for JT Thompson (Rutgers).
Game 2: North Adams 11, North Shore 0
The SteepleCats never looked back after building a 5-0 lead in the first inning. Each of the first three batters hit safely and scored, and catcher Michael Toth (UMass) hit a two-out, two-RBI single to help extend the lead.
Stang’s one-out solo homer to left-center field in the second added to the lead for North Adams, which scored in six of its seven innings at the plate. After closing the first game, Stang went 3-for-4 with three RBI and three runs scored to lead the 14-hit SteepleCat attack.
On the Navs’ side, Baker hit two-out doubles in the second and fifth, while first baseman Marc Willi (UMass) and Whitehill hit back-to-back singles in the sixth. A quartet of SteepleCat pitchers helped preserve the shutout.
Jackson Powers (Saint Anselm) and Parks both worked in relief of Stefano Yozzo (Middlebury). Parks made his North Shore pitching debut, working out of a bases-loaded jam to limit the damage to one run in the seventh.