Concerns of weather and fog at Cardines Field were replaced by fireworks and an unbelievable finish in the NECBL. The Ocean State Waves made the drive over Narragansett Bay and the Pell Bridge Series was set to face off for the 6th time in this season.
Brad Pruett (East Carolina) would be the man on the mound for the Gulls, Pruett who announced his transfer from Oklahoma to East Carolina earlier this month has blossomed into one of the top arms in the Gulls rotation and was given the given the honor of being the starter in the NECBL All-Star game this Sunday in Bristol Connecticut. Pruett, who hasn’t allowed an earned run in 15 innings in his last two starts, matched only by allowing 4 hits in those games.
The Waves would match with Owen Kramkowski (Arizona) the tall slender right hander made his 6th start of the year and 2nd against Newport in which he was chased off the mound by the Gulls bats after 2.1 innings allowing 5 runs.
Pruett and Kramkowski had nearly identical first innings as the first 4 batters were faced by each pitcher both allowing a runner but no damage was dealt to either side. Kramkowski did face the threat of new leadoff man Niko Brini (Wofford) reaching 3rd base after a stolen base and passed ball but a Tyler Hare (Wofford) strikeout ended the inning as it started with 0s on the board for each team.
Eric Genther (Rhode Island) would notch a leadoff single against Pruett but the rising senior would respond well, retiring the next 3 batters via a strikeout and 2 flyouts.
The bats in the middle of the order would get the offensive attack started for the Gulls as Carmelo Musacchia (Northeastern) hit a liner to left field which hopped over the glove of left fielder Logan Hughes (Texas Tech) in a sign of things to come the ball skittered it’s way to the the chain link fence in left field Musacchia’s helmet flew off his head al la Vlad Guerrero Jr rounding second base and dolphin dove into 3rd base receiving a standing ovation for the sold out Cardines crowd. A Tyler Minnick (Middle Tennessee State) single would drive home Musacchia and the Gulls would strike first leading 1-0 through 2 innings.
Pruett did not give the Waves any breathing room in the top of 3rd adding on another strikeout and forcing 2 ground balls which the Gulls infield handled with ease but surprisingly that is all that we would see from Pruett as he was pulled after just 3 innings allowing just a single hit and single walk lowering his ERA to an impossibly low 1.59 good enough for 2nd best in the NECBL.
New Gulls addition Campbell Holt (Austin Peay) would be who All-Star manager Mike Coombs would turn the ball over to making just his second appearance of the year he would have a quick 4th inning sending all 3 Waves batters back to bench via 3 groundouts.
With Newport sitting in the catbird seat in the top of the 4th Holt would be the man who Mike Coombs would send out again to try to go for as long as possible because of the tired arms accumulated in the Gulls bullpen. But the Waves bats that exploded for a 20-1 win over the Martha’s Vineyard Sharks just a day earlier woke up at Cardines and Holt allowed a leadoff single followed by a walk, a flyout would put the first out in Holt’s pocket but still not out of the woods with 2 runners on and just the single out. 9 hole hitter Greg Pettay (South Alabama) would roll a routine grounder to All-Star shortstop Randy Seymour (Michigan State) for what would be a routine 6-4-3 double play the ball clipped to foot of Zach Plasschaert (Arizona) running from 2nd to 3rd, despite having the lead runner get called out the Waves caught a break that they would soon take advantage of keeping the inning alive. With now 2 runners aboard and 2 outs and the top of the Waves order looming Holt found himself in a massive situation. The Oregon Ducks duo of Tommy Melusky and Ryan Cooney each notched a double and single respectively to take the lead 2-1. Some nifty baserunning by Melusky would lead to him crossing the plate.
The Gulls would go down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the 5th and at the halfway point the Waves would lead the game by a score of 3-1, looking to continue the trend of the visiting team winning every game in the 5 games where the teams had met thus far in the season. Waves pitchers would stifle the Gulls bats after Kramkowski would be pulled after 3, Logan Bevis (South Florida) would allow just 1 hit in the next 3 middle innings.
The Waves would tack on 2 more runs as Hughes lead off with a double followed by being knocked home on what a line drive from cleanup man Donovan Cash (Kennesaw State that hopped over normally reliable left fielder Tyler Hare’s glove in a play that looked eerily
similar to how the Gulls Musacchia landed himself on 3rd base in the bottom of the 2nd. Genther would continue his good play as he notched a single that would score Cash. Through 6 innings the Waves would lead by a score of 5-1.
Campbell Holt’s day would be done after that 6th inning calling Michael Kovala from the bullpen, Kovala who recently announced his transfer from Georgia Tech to division 3 Chipola College would steady the ship not allowing an earned run and striking out 7 in 3 innings pitched. The runs that Kovala did allow were casted due a slew of Gulls defensive errors that allowed the Waves to wreak havoc on the base paths. The normally reliable Gulls defense would count for a total of 5 errors on the day and it looked like almost certainly that would be the case of their demise but everything changed in the bottom of the 7th inning.
The Waves looked to stabilize the middle innings with Brooks Ey (Bryant) who has had success against the Newport lineup as the setup man and extend their own win streak to a season high 3 games. Nolan Stevens (Mississippi State) ripped a double in the right field gap and that was potentially the spark that the Gulls needed. A slew of singles by the heart of the Newport lineup Hare, Seymour and Musacchia. The score was now 7-5. The Gulls had pulled themselves back into a game that they had no business in, but they needed the bats to stay alive to complete the comeback.
The Waves would manage to get runner Eric Gunther who reached on another error to
3rd base with 2 outs in the top of the 8th. Greg Pettay at the plate would be down to his last
strike to try to get a massive insurance run across the plate for the Waves. Kovala would set and deliver, an inside pitch seemingly hit the batter Greg Pettay but no sign was given and played as a live ball. Gunther would take advantage as catcher Tyler Minnick scrambled to find the ball behind him but could not find it in time as Gunther passed the plate. The lead was now 8-5. When it felt like the Gulls had finally pulled themselves into arms reach of the lead a body blow that was a massive setback. Kovala would escape the inning with no more damage dealt and the Gulls had 6 outs to find 4 runs. Somehow, they wouldn’t even need to use all 6.
Needing a spark following the deflating run at the top of the 8th Mike Coombs reached into his back pocket and found a little bit of magic, he pinch hit Luke Orbon (St. Johns) in place of Andrew Duncan (Florida State) the infielder that is praised for his defensive prowess needed to get aboard. He dribbled a slow roller in between 1st and 2nd base and as Donovan Cash reached to his right to grab the ball he realized he had nobody covering his own 1st base. An infield hit, and the Gulls dugout came to life. Niko Brini would set up a 4 pitch walk and Nolan Stevens would get hit by a pitch. The bases were now loaded and Newport had exactly who they wanted at the plate. A man vying for the best batting average in the history of the NECBL 3rd basemen Dixon Williams (East Carolina) the man who shares the left side of the infield with him Randy Seymour called him “the best he’d ever seen” Williams batting an impossible .452 playing everyday 3rd base for the Gulls dug into his right handed batters box as a tense hush covered Cardines. Williams sat and wanted an offspeed pitch from Dawson Logie (Merrimack) and lifted it into right center field. Off the bat it looked like potentially a popup, but between the wind, humidity and magic forces at Cardines field, the ball carried, and carried, and carried and cleared but inches. On the bat of the best hitter in the league, for just his second home run of the year the Gulls catapulted themselves back into the lead. Impossibly, improbably a season of what shouldn’t happen, keeps happening at Cardines field 9-8, the Gulls would tack on a 10th run when Matt Ossenfort (NC State) ripped a single up the middle and all that was left was for Adam Walker (Austin Peay) to close the door on the Waves for what would be one of the most memorable wins of the season.
Back to back walks by Walker let the Oregon duo of the Waves get the go ahead to the plate with no outs yet recorded. A wild pitch by Walker and now a base hit ties the game with Logan Hughes at the plate. Hughes rips a linedrive destined for the gap only to stopped by the outstretched glove of Luke Orbon who leaped and reached above his head, quickly spun to his right and tossed the ball to an awaiting Seymour at 2nd base to tag up the runner Cooney. Double play, threat mitigated. Melusky would cross the plate on a Cash single but runs were simply academic at that point. A liner to who else but Dixon Williams at 3rd base would end the game. Newport over Ocean State 10-9.
