LYNN — The Upper Valley Nighthawks opened the New England Collegiate Baseball League summer season with a 5-0 shutout win over the North Shore Navigators Tuesday night at Fraser Field.
The teams traded zeroes in a scoreless game through the first six innings before Upper Valley scored two runs in the seventh to put the pressure on.
North Shore starter Benjamin Rehkow (Winthrop) finished three innings of no-hit ball with one strikeout, working around walks in back-to-back frames to start the game. The trio of Sam Belliveau (UMass), Gus Magill (Cornell) and Elliott Eaton (Princeton) also pitched scoreless innings in relief.
Upper Valley broke the long scoreless deadlock in the top of the seventh, loading the bases on an error and two walks before scoring a pair of two-out runs on third baseman Michael Trommer’s (Bucknell) single to shallow center.
Shortstop Jack Rickheim (Harvard) recorded North Shore’s first hit on an infield single in the eighth inning, but was unable to come across after a subsequent throwing error moved him over to second base. The Navs also stranded baserunners in four other innings, including right fielder Ethan Wilson (Winthrop) following a leadoff error and stolen base in the fourth.
RBI singles by left fielder Kyle Neri (Rider) in the eighth and second baseman Anthony Brotz (Marist) in the ninth helped extend the Nighthawks lead.
Upper Valley’s Flynn Howard (Merrimack), Aaron Potter (North Florida) and Mason Phillips (West Georgia) combined to post the shutout. Howard started with four no-hit innings, while Potter worked the next three for the win and Phillips the last two for the save.
The Navs are scheduled to play their first road game of the season Thursday against the Keene SwampBats. First pitch is set for 6:35 p.m. at Alumni Field.
