Original link: http://www.necbl.com/view/necbl/news-1185/news_537173
Danbury Westerners 7, Martha’s Vineyard Sharks 5
The four-seed Danbury Westerners (5-1) came back against, upset and edged the one-seed Martha’s Vineyard Sharks (3-2) in the third and final game of the Southern Division Finals to advance to the NECBL Championship Series at the Shark Tank on Tuesday night. Westerners relief pitcher Noah Jensen (Elon University) earned the win in the eighth inning by holding off the Sharks with a flawless outing (1 inning pitched, 0 hits, 0 earned runs, 0 walks, 3 strikeouts), and fellow reliever Alex Galvan (University of Louisville) suffered the loss by allowing Danbury’s winning runs in the top of the ninth (1 IP, 1 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 2 K). Coleman Picard (University of Hartford) earned his second save of the postseason for the Westerners by holding off Martha’s Vineyard in the bottom of the ninth inning.
Westerners third baseman Nicholas Lorusso (University of Maryland) hit a solo home run in the top of the second inning to give the underdog team an early lead, but the Sharks quickly tied the game up in the home half of the same inning by way of an RBI single from center fielder Anthony Shaver (Florida State University). In the visitor’s half of the fourth, Lorusso launched his second solo homer in just a couple of innings to reclaim his team’s lead and bring the score to 2-1. Westies catcher Jack Payton (University of Louisville) joined in on the solo longball fun in the fifth inning to extend Danbury’s lead to 3-1.
It didn’t take long for the Vineyard to take their first lead of the evening in the bottom of the fifth inning by tallying four runs, their final runs of the summer, with the help of an RBI single by second baseman Jadyn Jackson (Georgia Tech), a two-run double from first baseman Michael Brown (University of Washington) and an RBI double by right fielder Will Duff (Vanderbilt University) to make it a 5-3 score. An RBI by Westerners right fielder Henry Strmecki (University of Dayton) and an RBI single from shortstop Sebastian Murillo (Long Beach State) tied the ballgame up heading into the ninth inning before Danbury reclaimed their lead for the final time via a pair of pass balls thrown by Galvan to all but seal the four-seed’s ticket to the NECBL Championship round for the first time since the 2012 season.
留言