On America’s birthday, the Newport Gulls faced the Keene Swamp Bats for the first time this season. Unfortunately, the Gulls got bested by the Swamp Bats in an offensive showdown by the score of 12-8.
Kade Shatwell (Oklahoma City University) looked for his second win of the summer in his fifth start of the year. His outing got off to a rough start as the leadoff hitter for the Swamp Bats, Joe Jaconski, singled and later scored on a groundout to second by Jake Koonin. Shatwell missed his spot on a fastball down the middle allowing Ripken Reese to homer in the fourth. Besides that, Shatwell had a good start going five innings, only allowing two runs with 6 strikeouts.
On the other side, Josh Gunther held the Gulls scoreless in the first. However, in the second Niko Brini (Wofford) hit a line shot into right field to score Dixon Williams (East Carolina University) for the Gulls first run. In the next at-bat, Nolan Stevens (Mississippi State University) would drive in Jack Doyle (Northwestern) to make it a 2-1 Gulls lead in the second.
After a leadoff walk, the Swamp Bats turned to the bullpen early with Benjamin Shenosky in the third inning. Shenosky would throw three innings of two hit ball without allowing any runs and striking out three Gulls hitters.
After five innings from the starter, the Gulls turned to Drew Delucia (Franklin Pierce University) to shut down the sixth. Delucia had trouble in the sixth where he exited after allowing four runs on 4 hits while only getting two outs. Mason Ulch (Quinnipiac University) got the final out in the inning but not before the Swamp Bats regained the lead 6-2.
In the bottom of the sixth, Dane Burns came into the game for the Swamp Bats. An error by the shortstop and a hit by pitch made for a rough start for Burns who got the next batter, Nolan Stevens, out to bounce back. The Gulls would not leave the inning scoreless as a walk with bases loaded by Brody Szacko (Austin Peay St University) drove in the first run of the inning. A single by Randy Seymour (Michigan State University) drove in Brini and Szacko to make it a 6-5 game.
Ulsh could not get through the seventh after a leadoff single and a walk with one down brought in Adam Walker (Austin Peay St University) to finish the inning. The Swamp Bats would not finish the inning without a fight as a single by Reese allowed a run to score to make it 7-5. Walker then bounced back with a 1-2-3 inning in the eighth.
Jaden Varner entered the game in the seventh for the Swamp Bats and started out strong with a 1-2-3 inning of his own. The Gulls would then do more damage with two outs in the eighth tying the game after a Seymour infield single with a throwing error.
However, the Swamp Bats stayed discipline in the ninth scoring five runs in the top half. And even though the Gulls offense didn’t go down without a fight, they were unable to tie the game up and fell 12-8. The Gulls are back at home on Friday where they try to bounce back against the Danbury Westerners.
