SANFORD 一 The visiting North Shore Navigators scored two early runs, strung together eight shutout innings and held on in the ninth, defeating the Sanford Mainers, 2-1, in Friday night’s New England Collegiate Baseball League action at Goodall Park.
With the win, the Navs improved to 3-6 following their second win over the division rival Mainers, who remain winless at 0-5.
Peabody native Joe Castrichini (Longwood) struck out three across three shutout, two-hit innings in his first start of the summer. Colin Dowdle (Holy Cross) was credited with his first victory, dealing the next two innings without allowing a hit or a run and striking out one. Cole Yennaco (Merrimack) fanned a pair en route to recording his second save.
Left fielder Michael Perazza (West Virginia) went 2-for-4 while designated hitter Sean Scanlon (Holy Cross) and third baseman Simmi Whitehill (Monmouth) each recorded an RBI to lead North Shore, which scored single runs in the first and third innings and had a shutout intact through the first eight-plus frames.
North Shore scored the first run during a three-hit first, as Scanlon lined an RBI single into center with two outs to bring first baseman Brody Dalton (St. Johns River State). Perazza sparked the offense with a one-out single to center, but a fielder’s choice erased him two batters later before Scanlon provided the opening RBI.
After stranding two runners on base to end the second, the Navs doubled their lead when Whitehill knocked a two-out base hit of his own up the middle in the third. Catcher Aidan Sengenberger (Stonehill) and Scanlon were both hit by pitches from Sanford starter Zachary Brassill (SNHU) to set the table for Whitehill.
Castrichini quickly worked with a lead, holding Sanford scoreless following a two-out walk in the first and leadoff base hits by Sanford left fielder Luke Jenkins (UNC Greensboro) and second baseman Zack Kent (Binghamton) in the second. He completed a 1-2-3 third with a strikeout.
Elliott Eaton (Princeton), Oisin Lee (Notre Dame) and Ryan Griffin (Northeastern) followed Dowdle on the mound, each stranding Sanford runners to post scoreless innings of relief to carry North Shore into the late innings. The hosts were held hitless in seven of the first eight frames.
Griffin struck out two in the eighth before Yennaco took over for the finish. Sanford broke up the shutout in the ninth after Jenkins lined a leadoff double into the left-center gap, advanced on a wild pitch, and scored on Kent’s sacrifice fly. Yennaco extinguished the threat and ended the game, though, getting third baseman Ryder Kirtley (Virginia Tech) to strike out with the tying run on first base.
Sanford’s relief trio of Jason Libby (Maine), Connor Toriello (Salve Regina) and Drew Smith (UConn) allowed just one hit over the final six innings, but North Shore held on for the victory.
