LYNN — Another good start went to waste for the North Shore Navigators on Thursday night, as the Navs allowed five runs to the Danbury Westerners in the third inning and ended up falling 8-4 in Game 2 of the New England Collegiate Baseball League Championship Series at Fraser Field.
With the loss, the Navigators are eliminated and Danbury takes home the Fay Vincent Sr. Cup.
Mathias Haas was 1-for-3 with three RBI to lead the offensive attack for the Navigators, while Lynnfield native Jonathan Luders was 2-for-4. Cal Christofori (2-for-3) also had two hits, while Logan Bravo and Ryan Marra each had one hit.
Swampscott native Luke Marshall got the start on the mound for North Shore and went three innings, allowing seven runs on six hits with four strikeouts. James Sashin came in to pitch four innings of relief, allowing one run on two hits with five strikeouts.
In a similar fashion to Game 1, the Navs got off to a solid start Thursday night. After Marshall got through the top of the first inning with no issue, the Navigators put two runners on base right away after a Jake McElroy walk and a Jonathan Luders single. Joe Lomuscio was then hit by a pitch to load the bases, and Haas took advantage of the situation by smacking a two-run single to get North Shore on the board. Next up was Christofori, who came through with an RBI single of his own to make it 3-0.
The score stood there until the top of the third, when Danbury exploded for five runs to take the lead. Andrew Jenkins and Nichols LoRusso each notched an RBI single to make it a 3-2 game; then Matt Zaffino smashed a three-run homer to give the Westerners a 5-3 lead.
North Shore was able to get one back in the bottom of the third when Haas notched another RBI with a groundout to make it 5-4, but Danbury responded right away with RBI hits from Jenkins and LoRusso to keep the Westerners ahead by three.
The Westerners went on to add another insurance run in the sixth inning, and held an 8-4 lead going into the top of the eighth inning.
North Shore couldn’t get any closer from there as Danbury’s relievers shut the door and sealed the win.
