The Gulls’ journey toward an 8th Fay Vincent Sr. Cup began its postseason act with an evening showdown with the Valley Blue Sox on a gorgeous Thursday in the Ocean State. This was a game in two acts, with a Valley onslaught from the first pitch. When hope appeared lost, the Gulls responded with their best inning of the season, putting up a seven-piece en route to taking the lead. Armed with the lead, Drew DeLucia(Franklin Pierce) pitched his best game of the year, playing the hero with a 14-out save in the Gulls 10-8 win.
Aidan Coleman(Pittsburgh) took the mound to start the game, throwing an inning to forget. With three walks, a couple of soft-hit RBI hits, and a weird error where a Jake Burley(Wake Forest) throw hit a runner’s helmet, causing a two-base error, the Gulls fell down 5-0. The Gulls would respond instantly. A leadoff double from Niko Brini(Wofford) was followed by a line-drive single from Andrew Duncan(Florida State). Dixon Williams(ECU) continued his stellar summer with a sac fly, bringing the score to 5-1 after 1. In the 3rd, Duncan hit one to the deepest part of the ballpark, cruising around the bases for a leadoff triple, after which Williams continued his performance with a ground ball to 2nd, driving home the outfielder to make it 5-2.
After the 1st, Coleman would return to his league-best form, getting through the next innings comfortably. A 2-out double from Lucas Manning would give the Blue Sox one more off the Sophomore, who finished 4 innings allowing 4 earned runs, recording 3 strikeouts. He would come out for the 5th but left one up in the zone to Jay Bant, who made it 7 runs given up by Coleman, 5 of which were earned.
Drew DeLucia would come in with 1 out in the 5th for relief. His impact would be instant, recording the last two outs of the inning on two pitches. He would get through the 6th, despite Lucas Manning driving in yet another run to stretch the Blue Sox lead to six. His 7th would be even smoother, recording two Ks in only the 3rd scoreless inning on the night.
The Gulls would be scoreless until the 7th when the game would take a turn. A walk from Burley was followed by a single from Jack Doyle(Northeastern). After Niko Brini was hit by a pitch, Andrew Duncan had his moment. A 3-2 fastball was left in the zone, and Duncan sent it 370 feet for a grand slam. In an 8-6 game, Williams had another single before a walk to Nolan Stevens (Miss. St.) chased Blue Sox pitcher Will Newell with two on and nobody out. Then came Tyler Minnick(Middle Tennessee St.), who nearly repeated Duncan, hitting one high off the center field wall to drive home Williams. Matt Ossenfort(NC State) then roped a double down the right field line, plating Stevens(Miss. St.). After two strikeouts, Jack Doyle would play hero with another single up the middle to give the Gulls the lead, before Niko Brini would put the exclamation on the inning with an opposite-field single to give the Gulls a 10-8 lead.
DeLucia took the momentum from the offense and ran with it, recording a 1-2-3 inning for the 1st time all night, putting the Gulls three outs away from a comeback win. After a scoreless bottom of the 8th, DeLucia was given the chance to record the rare 14-out save. With another button coming unclasped seemingly every out, DeLucia recorded a second consecutive 1-2-3 inning, slamming the door shut on a historic night.
These two teams will continue the 1st round tomorrow at 6:35, in Holyoke. Should Valley win Game 2, game 3 of the series would be played back at Cardines Field on Saturday night.
