LYNN – The North Shore Navigators came up with a huge win on Sunday evening in their opening round matchup against the Brockton Rox. The team completely controlled the game and ended up defeating their divisional rivals by a final score of 5-0.
The story of the game for the Navigators was the performance of their starting pitcher Speros Varinos (Tufts 
University). Varinos made his second consecutive start against the Rox, and he did not disappoint in his effort. He worked eight innings during the game and he shut the Rox down. He allowed no runs and two hits over the course of his outing to go along with a team high five strikeouts. He absolutely looked like an ace and was a major part of why the Navigators were able to advance.
The final inning of work came from Brian Burke (Curry College) who looked strong out on the mound. He only had to face the minimum three batters and recorded one strikeout before sending the Rox down.
On offense, the team was able to explode early in the game off of the Rox starter Eric Keating. In the second inning, the Navs batted around the order and struck for five runs to take control of the game.
Christian Cabrera (Broward CC) got the inning started off with a single while Mack Nathanson (Wofford College) and Mike D’Acunti (Southeastern University) would reach on a walk and a hit by pitch to load the bases. With no outsd, Nick DiBenedetto (Trinity College) got the scoring started by driving a single to right field. That gave the Navigators a 1-0 lead.
The next batter, UMass Lowell’s Colby Maiola, came up and got the same result as DiBenedetto. He ripped an RBI single to left field that scored D’Acunti and made the lead 2-0. Two batters later, Joey Pena (St. Thomas Aquinas) opened up the game with a two run double that made the score 4-0. One more run would come in on a past ball that ultimately ended the scoring a 5-0. That is how it would remain for the rest of the game.
The Navigators will return to action on Monday, August 8 at Fraser Field when they open up a three game series against the Worcester Bravehearts. The Navigators will play game one at home before travelling to Worcester for games two and three. First pitch for Game One is scheduled for 7:00 p.m.
