North Shore Hands Muskrats Third Walk-Off Loss
(Written by Muskrats outfielder Niko Fraser)
In an unfavorable way, late inning heroics seem to follow the Muskrats, as the North Shore Navigators delivered Laconia their third walk-off loss of the month.
North Shore’s Cody Dent (University of Florida) took the thunderous noise from the crowd as encouragement in the bottom of the ninth inning, with two outs and extra innings on the line, as he delivered a walk-off RBI single to left field after battling to a full count and giving the fans five souvenirs.
The 3-2 final undid Laconia’s top of the ninth inning comeback effort. The Muskrats are now 17-16 overall, and 2-14 on the road.
The first inning was Laconia starter Tyler Joyner’s (East Carolina University) only flaw, as he gave up his only two runs, and three out of the five hits allowed, in his final appearance of the summer for the Muskrats. With two down in the bottom of the first, Jason Banos (Columbia University) laced a ball off the extended Tom Rombilus (New Haven) at third base to continue the inning. Anthony Melchionda (Boston College) and Dario Pizzano (Columbia University) followed Banos with a walk and an RBI single, respectively. After Joyner walked designated hitter Garret Smith (Boston College), Jack Mayfield (University of Oklahoma) capped off the Navigators’ scoring for the next eight innings with an RBI single.
Joyner settled down after the first, going on to add five scoreless innings while fanning five. He did not factor in the decision.
The Muskrats got on the board in the fourth as Evan Marzilli (University of South Carolina) doubled down the right field line, followed by Niko Fraser’s (Elon University) ground out to first, which moved him to third base. With the NECBL RBI leader, Casey Kalenkosky (Cisco College) at the plate, Navigators’ starter Crayton Bare delivered a wild pitch. As Marzilli charged from third, catcher Pat Hollerman (Tusculum College) made a nice bare-handed flip to Bare to get the out at the plate. However, home plate umpire Brian Troup thought the ball was still at the backstop, so with his back turned, he called the speedy Marzilli safe at home without seeing the play.
The middle innings were defined by pitching as no one scored from the fourth inning until the final.
In the ninth, trailing 2-1, the Muskrats sent the top of the lineup to the plate. Marzilli reached again on a walk and, seeing that the fourth ball had gotten away from Holleran on the play, Marzili raced to second base. Fraser laid down a sacrifice bunt to advance Marzilli to third base. For the second time in the game, the RBI leader stood at the plate with less than two outs and Marzilli at third. However Mark Williams proved victorious when Kalenkosky grounded out to third. Derek Trent (East Tennessee State University) didn’t let the ‘game-on-the-line’ pressure get to him as he came through with a clutch double off the right field wall which scored Marzilli. Ryan Lewis (Columbus State University) was unable to score Trent’s pinch runner John Polonius (Genesee College) from second, as he grounded out to end the inning tied at 2-2.
Laconia’s Nick Krisman (Judson) sat down the first batter of the bottom of the ninth with a pop-out down the first base line, a promising start for the excellent closer. Pizzano and Smith then reached on consecutive singles. To make the force play at any base, Krisman and the Muskrats gambled by intentionally walking Mayfield, loading the bases. The move seemed favorable when Krisman fanned the next batter, Hollerman, but Krisman was unable to sit down Dent for a fourth time in the game and Dent’s RBI single gave the Muskrats and Krisman the loss.
Navigators’ pitchers Bare, Dillon Hocheavar, Mark Williams, Dan Duval and Hunter Rivers combined to two-hit the Muskrat lineup.
Rivers got the win in one inning pitched, dispite blowing the save, allowing a walk, a hit, and one earned run. Krisman took the loss, his first of the season, with 2/3 innings pitched, one strike out, a walk, three hits, and an earned run.
The Muskrats travel to Connecticut to face-off against Western Division foe Danbury Friday night for the first time of the summer. Follow the game on the NECBL Broadcast Network.