The Newport Gulls emerged victorious in game one of the semifinals, 11-6 against the Danbury Westerners on Thursday night at Cardines Field.
Newport got the scoring started in a big way in the bottom of the second inning. Kolby Branch (University of Georgia) started things off with a single and later scored on a Billy Butler (University of Southern Mississippi) RBI double. The next batter, Jacob Burley (Wake Forest University), drove home Butler after reaching on an error. Later in the inning, Luke Beckstein (Northeastern University) kept the scoring going with an RBI double to score Burley. The big hit of the inning came when Michael Anderson (University of Rhode Island) followed Beckstein with a two-run home run, his third long ball of the postseason. After two innings of play, the Gulls led 5-0.
The Westerners responded immediately with six runs in the top of the third. The Westerners started the inning with two straight infield singles. The next batter, Drew Wyers launched a three-run homerun to cut the Newport lead to 5-3. Danbury was not done scoring as they received another homerun, this time a two-run shot off the bat of Harrison Fienberg to tie the game at five. A few batters later, Aiden Jolley made it 6-5 as he connected on Danbury’s third homerun of the inning.
Both teams would go back and forth as the Gulls countered by taking the lead right back in the bottom of the third. After Slate Alford (University of Georgia) and Branch each reached base via a walk and a single, respectively, Butler singled to score them both as the Gulls regained the lead, 7-6.
Newport made it three straight innings with at least two runs scored as they tacked on two more in the fourth. Branch extended the Gulls lead to 9-6 with a two-run double which scored Tyler Hare (Wofford College) and Alford.
A couple innings later, Anderson tacked on another run for the Gulls with his second homerun of the game. The homerun for Anderson gave him four homeruns through the first four games of the playoffs. With two outs in the inning, Alford got in on the home run party, hitting his second homerun of the postseason. At the end of six innings of play, the Gulls maintained an 11-6 lead. That lead held through the rest of the game as they took game one and are now one win away from advancing to the championship round of the NECBL playoffs for the first time since 2014.
Adam Maher (University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth) started the game for the Gulls and went three innings, allowing six runs. Grant Umberger (Toledo University) registered the win out of the pen, going five scoreless innings. Braden Ostrander (Florida Atlantic University) shut the door in the ninth.
The series will continue on Friday, August 4th when Newport travels to Rogers Park in Danbury, Connecticut for game two of the NECBL semifinals. Gametime is scheduled for 6:30 and will be broadcasted live on the NECBL Broadcast Network.
