The New Bedford Bay Sox six runs in the seventh inning, and added two more in the eighth to pull ahead from the Muskrats Saturday night, taking Game 2 of the Eastern Division semifinal match-up 11-5. With the loss, Laconia’s history-making season comes to an end, lacking the postseason magic that propelled the team on last August.
Laconia used seven arms to try to tame the Bay Sox Saturday, but they could not be slowed on their way to the franchise’ first playoff series win since 2007. At that time, the team was in Torrington, with MLB standout Stephen Strasburg on the roster. The Twisters defeated Laconia’s predecessor, the Manchester (CT) Silkworms, that season, five years and one day ago today.
Wil Leathers (Spartanburg Methodist) scored a run and drove in another with a sacrifice fly. Laconia took advantage of back-to-back errors from New Bedford shortstop Peyton Hart (Kennesaw St) in the eighth, grabbing two unearned runs. The play harkened back to Hart’s two errors in the seventh inning last night.
The Muskrats’ season concludes with its best finish in the East since moving to Laconia in 2010, avoiding a third-straight four-seed in third place. In the coming days, the record-breaking summer of 2012 will be summarized in depth here on the Muskrats website.
New Bedford advances to the Eastern Finals, which will begin Monday. The Bay Sox will face the winner of the series between top-seeded Newport and the Sanford Mainers, who forced a Game 3 with a comeback win at home Saturday.
