Navigators split final home games of regular season

LYNN – Needing to win three of their last five games to ensure that they would open up the playoffs at home this weekend, the North Shore Navigators split a twinbill yesterday with the Lowell All-Americans at Fraser Field.The Navs received solid pitching in the nightcap from starter Mike Adams and reliever Jason Markovitz, blanking Lowell, 1-0. The All-Americans won the opener, 5-2. The games were the last at home before the playoffs begin this weekend.Adams entered the second game looking for both his first win, and also to lower his ERA of 6.83. He allowed a one-out double to shortstop Pat McKenna in the first, but left him stranded. He was able to retire the next seven batters in order, but ran into two-out trouble in the top of the third. Centerfielder Steve Daniels reached on an infield error, and then Adams issued a walk to McKenna. Adams then induced second baseman Nicholas Pecora to bounce to second to end the threat.The Navs (24-14) got the only run they would need in the bottom of the frame. Third baseman Kyle Geason was beaned by Lowell righty Joey Lucier (who only allowed two hits in his hard-luck loss) with one down. Outfielder Jesse Bruinsma (from Lynnfield) dropped a bunt between the mound and third, and Lucier couldn’t handle it properly. Right fielder Joshua Garton lashed a sharp single to right, and teammate Sean McNaughton’s sacrifice fly to center plated Geason for a 1-0 Navs edge.A pair of singles sandwiched a flyout in the Lowell fourth, but Adams fanned catcher Dan Coury and third baseman Chris Rouches to get out of the jam. The All-Americans (15-24) had runners on first and second with one down in the fifth after a single by Daniels and walk to McKenna. Adams induced Pecora to fly to left, then was replaced by Markovitz. Markovitz, who worked two and 2/3 scoreless innings of relief, got right fielder Kevin Rivers to fly to right on the first pitch to keep the lead intact.”Mike hadn’t worked in a while, but he gave us a chance to win this game,” said Navigators skipper Jason Falcon of the work by Adams. “And Jason just kept throwing strikes (he fanned the side in both the sixth and seventh frames). I almost did a dumb thing by taking him out and putting in (closer) Chris Prescott, as Lowell had two lefties in a row up (in the seventh), but kept him in there.”The All-Americans put the opener out of reach in the first two innings. First baseman Tony Plagman had a two-out single in the first, while Pecora singled across teammates Mathew Colantonio and Alex Dal Valle for a 4-0 Lowell edge.The Navs broke the shutout in the fifth when infielder Nick Belcher scored on outfielder Mike Provencher’s single. Catcher Frank Pesonello knocked in outfielder Justin Little with his sixth-inning single, before Lowell added a run in the seventh.The Navs get back to where they once belonged today and tomorrow, playing another twinbill in Holyoke against the Blue Sox. They will then take on Torrington in a makeup affair (in Holyoke) Thursday afternoon, before facing the Blue Sox in the evening.”It’s been a long season for a lot of our guys, as some of them have already played close to 100 games,” Falcon said of his ballclub. “There are better things we’d rather be doing than playing six games in three days, but we understand that we’re fighting for one of the top three (playoff) spots.”