LYNN – The North Shore Navigators fell to the Brockton Rox on Saturday by the final score of 7-2 before rebounding with a decisive 16-6 victory against the Pittsfield Suns on Sunday evening. With this weekend’s results, the Navigators improve to 6-13 on the season. The Navs are also in midst of a stretch in which they have won four of their last five games, including three in a row at Fraser Field.
In Saturday evening’s game, the Navs offense failed to show up as they could only put across two runs while scattering seven hits.
Brockton got to the Navs early, as they took an early 1-0 lead in the bottom of the 2nd thanks to an RBI single from Joe Silva (Concordia U-Chicago). In the bottom of the 5th inning the Rox furthered their lead when Joe Silva scored on a wild pitch. Later in the frame, Sam Cochrane (Eckerd College) hammered a two-run double to extend the Rox lead to 4-0
The Navigators got on the bored in the top of the 6th inning when Tyler Kapuscinski (Marist) laced a RBI single which cut into the Brockton lead and made the score 4-1
In the bottom of the 6th inning Brockton added three more runs to make the score 7-1. The Navs would add on one run in the eighth inning, but that was how the game ended. The Rox defeated the Navs by the final score of 7-2.
On Sunday, the North Shore Navigators made up for Saturday’s lack of offense with a 16-run outburst. The run total is the highest offensive output by the North Shore thus far this season.
The beginning of the game did not start out too well for the home team as the Suns scored five runs in the top of the first to take a 5-0 lead. The Navs kept clawing back into the game with single markers in the next couple innings.
Joey Pena (St. Thomas Aquinas) knocked a grand slam in a seven run fifth to mark the crowing jewel in the victory. The hit was the fifth grand slam in Navigators team history. The team hit a record two on the season last year.
Producing a dominant performance on both sides of the ball was team RBI and home run leader, Alex Brickman (St. Petersburg). Brickman hit his own three run shot in the fifth. He also earned the save in the game, getting three strikeouts and surrendering two hits in four innings of relief. Evan Glew survived a tough first inning, giving up six runs, for the win.
A great deal of small ball matched the efforts of the Navigators home runs. The Navigators kept a solid eye in the batters’ box, walking nine times. The bottom of the rotation in the eight hitter Nick Rossi (Keene State) and Jeff Mejia (UMass Lowell) both walked twice, setting up the top of the lineup. Mejia also earned three RBI, alongside Brickman and Pena. All Navigators starters earned a hit or an RBI as the offense lit up the offense.
Navs newcomer Austin Masel (Holy Cross) went 2-for-3 with one walk in his first game for the Navs.. Masel is just off of a great season in which he was named the Patriot League Rookie of the Year.
The Navigators have a busy week at home, hosting Seacoast on Tuesday, Brockton on Wednesday and Brockton again for Friday’s fireworks night.
