HOLYOKE, MA–The Newport Gulls, who have appeared in back-to-back NECBL Championship series, fly into Mackenzie Stadium for the only time this season in a 5:05 p.m. clash.
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LAST TIME THEY MET: The Blue Sox dropped last year’s matchup at home against the Gulls by an 8-2 count on June 20, 2013. Down 1-0 before they even came to bat, they tied the game on a single by center fielder Jacob Bruce, who brought in pitcher/DH Michael Burke. The hosts then took a 2-1 lead in the third as Burke drove in a run.
However, the Gulls exploded for four in the fifth to take a 5-2 lead and never looked back, adding runs in the sixth and seventh to stretch their lead to 8-2, the final score.
The Blue Sox did win at Newport in the first matchup of last season, taking a 4-3 win in ten innings. After blowing the 3-2 lead in the ninth, Jacob Cronenworth hit a towering home run to left to lead off the tenth, and that was enough for closer Ben Rakus, who worked around a leadoff single to get the next three outs.
ALL-TIME SERIES: The Blue Sox are 7-5 all-time against the Newport Gulls, one of the few teams with historic success against the perennial league power. Last season’s loss at home was the first the Blue Sox had ever suffered, as they are 5-1 against the Gulls at Mackenzie Stadium.
PITCHING PROBABLES: Tucker Simpson will take the ball to try to snap Valley’s losing streak; he made his first appearance of the season at New Bedford, throwing three shutout innings with one hit, one walk, and four strikeouts in what ultimately was an 11-5 win for the Blue Sox. Against him, the Gulls are set to throw Michigan State junior Anthony Misiewicz. The lefty has one start on the year, throwing seven frames of five hit, eight strikeout baseball against the Mystic Schooners while allowing a single unearned run, taking no decision in a 5-4 loss for the Gulls on June 14.
LAST TIME OUT: The Blue Sox absorbed two losses yesterday against the Vermont Mountaineers, falling 3-0 and 9-5 in a doubleheader at Mackenzie Stadium.
In game one, the Mountaineers banged out the winning run with two outs in the first on a walk and back-to-back singles, and that would be the sum of the scoring until the seventh frame, when they hit the first Mackenzie Stadium home run of 2014, and followed that with a hit batter and two singles for the 3-0 final.
Game two saw the Mountaineers jump out to a 2-0 lead, but the Blue Sox fought back with a two-out rally of their own, striking with three singles and an error, including a Bobby Stahel RBI single, to tie the game 2-2. Vermont scored two in the third to take a 4-2 lead, but Stahel again came through, driving in another run to make it 4-3.
However, Vermont scored a run in the fourth and four in the fifth to take a 9-3 edge. Trey Sikes did drive in a run in the bottom of the fifth, but the Sox left the bases loaded, and the only subsequent run they were able to score came in the next inning when Mendez Elder came home on a wild pitch for the 9-5 final.
WHO’S HOT: Stahel went three-for-four with two RBI and a run last night. Sikes leads the league in batting average at .396 and home runs with four, while sitting third in the league in RBI with 11. Gulls catcher Blaise Salter has seven hits in his last twelve at bats, including a pair of doubles, as he rides a five-game hitting streak.
GAME-TIME WEATHER FORECAST: Partly cloudy, 77 degrees, winds northwest at 5 MPH, 0% chance of rain.
NEXT UP: The Blue Sox will have three days off before facing the Plymouth Pilgrims on Thursday, June 26 at 6:35 p.m. at Mackenzie Stadium.