LYNN, MA – In what turned out to be a much longer night than anybody expected, a late comeback attempt fell just short for the Newport Gulls in a 4-3 loss at the North Shore Navigators.
Cole Cheatham (UAB) started on the mound for the Gulls and cruised through the first inning before running into a bit of trouble in the second. A single from Matt Chatelle and double from Jesse Jaconski to begin the frame put the pressure on Newport. After getting a strikeout, Cheatham allowed a single to Tim McGuire and that brought both Chatelle and Jaconski home to give the Navigators a 2-0 lead.
On the other side, Truman was North Shore’s starting pitcher and had a comfortable first two scoreless innings of work before that change in the third. While the first two batters of the frame were put away, a Nolan Stevens (Mississippi State) walk and Nolan Stevens (East Carolina) single put runners on the corners. Then, a passed ball during Tyler Hare’s (Wofford) plate appearance allowed Stevens to come in from third and put Newport on the board.
The score remained 2-1 heading into the bottom of the fourth and that’s when things got really weird and the game took an unexpected turn. Nothing out of the ordinary occurred at the start of the inning as Danny MacDougall led off with a walk and advanced to second on a Tim McGuire groundout after that. It was at this point that the Gulls decided to make a pitching change. Michal Kovala (Chipola) got the call from the bullpen and it was shortly after that when the game would have to be paused for an uncommon reason. After Kovala came out to the hill and threw one warm up pitch, the rubber on the mound completely detached from the turf at Fraser Field and that turned into a much more complex issue than many had initially realized. Once Kovala notified everyone of the issue, many players and coaches from both sides converged on the mound to try and resolve the issue but it evidently wasn’t an easy fix. A 10 minute delay quickly turned into 30 minutes and the delay continued to drag out. Eventually, a handy man came to the resume with a tool kit and put screws in on each side of the rubber to make sure it stayed put. Typically, there are three screws in the rubber but without one in the middle, it was still a bit wobbly. After the teams continued to wait and the umpires talked it out, everyone decided that the repair was good enough for the game to continue. At the very end of the delay, Newport decided to get Drew DeLucia loose and bring him in for the resumption of play even though Kovala was set to replace Cheatham. When play finally resumed, it had been a lengthy 86 minutes that passed between pitches. The delay began at 7:35 and play finally resumed at 9:01. After one of the most bizarre delays, Andrew Bianco wasted no time making it known that the game was back underway as he ripped a triple to score Danny MacDougall from second and give the Navigators a 3-1 lead. North Shore wasn’t done yet as Bianco came home on a wild pitch two batters later to make it 4-1.
The score stayed that way as the next several innings rolled along and DeLucia kept North Shore off the board in the next four frames. In large part due to the long delay, Truman Pauley’s night was over after four innings and Jack Volo pitched the next frame before Ryan Griffin took over in the sixth and stayed in until Newport made some noise in the ninth. The Gulls had the bases loaded in the fifth and runners on second and third in the sixth but couldn’t cash in both times so the deficit was still three entering the final frame. The ninth inning started well for the Gulls thanks to singles from Greg Bozzo (Northeastern) and Luke Orbon (St. John’s). That’s when North Shore pulled the plug on Griffin and brought Ryan Bradley in to pitch. Niko Brini, the first batter he faced, hit a ball weakly to the right side of the infield but once the first baseman Andrew Bianco got to the ball a few feet from the bag, nobody was covering first for him to toss to and Brini got there before he could to load up the bases with no outs. Bradley responded with a huge strikeout. Then, after the count ran full, Dixon Williams (East Carolina) laced a single to center field and drove in Bozzo and Orbon to cut the deficit to one. After that, Bradley struck out Tyler Hare to get a massive second out. Randy Seymour was Newport’s last hope with runners at second and third and grounded out to give the Navigators a nail biting 4-3 win that had plenty of drama in the final inning.
Thursday’s meeting was the seventh and final matchup between the Gulls and Navigators in the regular season with Newport taking the season series 4-3 despite the loss. North Shore remains just 1.5 games out of a playoff spot, moving to 17-22 with the win. Even with the loss, the Gulls officially clinched a playoff spot because Upper Valley lost to Keene. Newport has a chance to inch closer to clinching the Coastal Division on Friday against Martha’s Vineyard on the road. First pitch from the Shark Tank is scheduled for 7:05.
