Jake Brodt (Santa Clara) powered some energy into the Newport Gulls line-up in an attempt to facilitate another walk-off win at Cardines Field, but the Gulls were unable to fight all the way back, as the Winnipesaukee Muskrats defeated the Gulls 8-6 on Monday night at Cardines Field to extend the Gulls winless streak to five games.
The Gulls jumped up to a quick lead in the second when Mark Powell (Bucknell) airlifted a two-run homer over the right-field fence, his first home run of the season.
Newport immediately gave the lead back to Winnipesaukee, however, when the Muskrats nearly batted around and scored four runs on three hits off of Gulls starter Jackson Goddard (Kansas) in the third.
But Charlie Carpenter (South Carolina-Upstate) tied the game up with one swing of his bat in the bottom of the inning, sending a two-run homer of his own just over the right-field fence to make the score 4-4.
The Muskrats regained a 5-4 lead with a little help from the Gulls pitching staff and a couple well-placed base hits. A leadoff single followed by a double down the right field line positioned the Muskrats to advance home following a wild pitch. The Muskrats plated two additional runs in the seventh to extend their lead to 7-4.
The Gulls worked the bases loaded in the home half of the seventh behind a leadoff walk to Ben Breazeale (Wake Forest) and singles by Kevin Strohschein (Tennessee Tech) and Carpenter. Connor Kaiser (Vanderbilt) collected the RBI via a hit-by-pitch and advanced to first. The Gulls continued what has become a season-long runners-left-on-base struggle, as they were unable to capitalize on the bases-loaded opportunity and trailed 7-5.
Kris Bubic (1-3) (Stanford) was tabbed with the loss, tossing 3.0 innings, while giving up the go-ahead run in the fifth inning to the Muskrats. Winnipesauke, fresh off a 1-0 shutout victory against the Gulls in Laconia, New Hampshire on Saturday, added an insurance run in the eighth as Newport’s ninth-inning rally, sparked by Brodt’s homer, fell short, completing the Muskrats’ sweep of the two-game, interdivision series.
Newport is back on the road tomorrow night to face the Northern Division-leading Keene Swamp Bats (10-5) at Alumni Field in Keene, N.H. for a scheduled 6:30 p.m. first pitch. The Gulls are back home at Cardines Field on Wednesday night to take on the Sanford Mainers at 6:35 p.m. for Gulls Fight Pancreatic Cancer Night.
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