Navs stay hot, top Mavericks

The North Shore Navigators traveled to play the Seacoast Mavericks on Wednesday night in their midseason push to earn a playoff spot. North Shore has turned it around recently and one of the teams ahead of it in the standings is the Mavericks, so the game carried much importance.Walker O?Connor (West Florida) got the start for the Navigators and turned in a gem, en route to a 6-4 victory. O?Connor threw 6 innings of 5-hit ball, giving up only 1 run and lowering his ERA to 3.66.Rich Baerga (St. Thomas Aquinas) opened things up in the top of the 1st inning with a two run home run.The Navigators struck for three more runs in the top of the 5th inning. Baerga came through again with a two-out RBI single to score Justin Peluso (Wheaton). One batter later, Sean O?Neill (Merrimack) hit a single to left that scored Matt Ramsay (Wofford) and Baerga to make it 5-0.Seacoast scored its 1st run of the game in the bottom of the 6th when Alex Merritt (North Florida) doubled to left to bring home Ryan Gendron (SHNU).After North Shore added one more run in the top of the 7th on a Nolan Fisher (Southeast Missouri State) home run, the Mavericks got back into the game in the bottom of the inning with a 3-run frame. RBI hits by Alex Merrit and Dalton Davis (San Jacinto) made it 6-4.Mike Weisman (Columbia) and Rob DiFranco (Bates) combined to shut out the Mavericks in the 8th and 9th innings.The next Navigators home game is Thursday night at 7 p.m.