BRISTOL, Conn. — The North Shore Navigators continued their season-long trend of playing tight Futures Collegiate Baseball League contests with Bristol, but the host Blues used a two-run rally in the seventh inning to post a 6-4 win Thursday night at Muzzy Field.
North Shore slipped to 14-26 on the summer with its fourth consecutive loss, while third-place Bristol used its fourth straight win to improve to 24-17. Six of the team’s seven meetings this season have been decided by two runs or less.
The Navs matched their opposition in the hit column with 11, three of which came off the bat of third baseman Elias Varinos (Tufts) in five at-bats. Right fielder JP Knight (Tufts) and center fielder George Sutherland (Cochise) each had two, with Sutherland recording all three of the team’s RBI.
Navs starter Matt O’Connor (UMass Lowell) and Bristol counterpart Adam Riggleman (Glenville State) posted dueling zeroes over the first three innings, with each stranding the bases loaded once in that span. O’Connor allowed just two runs on six hits in his five-inning start.
Designated hitter Dominic Keegan (Vanderbilt) hit a one-out double inside the left field line in the second before left fielder Michael Wynne (Wofford) and catcher John Prentice (New England College) drew back-to-back walks with two outs, but Riggleman struck out first baseman Corey DiLoreto (Northeastern) to end the frame.
North Shore bounced back and scored the game’s first run in the fourth as Keegan drew a one-out walk and scored all the way from first on Sutherland’s double into the right-center field gap.
The Blues scored their first five runs with two outs in the ballgame, beginning in the fifth when third baseman Alex Loparco (Western New England) and left fielder Dylan Reynolds (Fairfield) logged back-to-back singles take a 2-1 lead. Reynolds was one of four Blues batters to post a multiple-hit game, joining right fielder Peyton Stephens (Central Connecticut State), catcher Bryce Ramsay (Hartford), and second baseman Andrew Hague (UConn).
Knight led off the sixth with a triple to right-center field and scored on a wild pitch, but the Navs squandered a golden opportunity to add to their lead as Blues reliever Justin Rouse (Rhode Island) struck out shortstop Sal Frelick (Boston College) with the bases loaded.
Bristol then matched the Navs’ single run with one of their own as center fielder Ethan Hunt (Charleston) reached on a dropped and scored on two of Navs reliever Danny Ryan’s (Northeastern) wild pitches.
The teams traded pairs of runs in the seventh. For the Navs, Varinos led off with a single to left, Knight hit a one-out double two batters later, and Sutherland drove both home as he lined a first-pitch single to right. Three straight two-out hits against Spencer Brown (Northern Essex CC) allowed Bristol to take the lead for good, the second of which was a Stephens triple.
Hague scored Bristol’s insurance run on a wild pitch in the eighth before Neal McDermott (Seton Hill) worked around Navs second baseman Joey Murphy’s (Saint Joseph’s of Maine) leadoff single to post his league-leading 13th save of the season.
The Navs conclude their two-game road trip at 6:30 p.m. Friday against the Pittsfield Suns from Wahconah Park before returning home to Fraser Field to host the first-place Martha’s Vineyard Sharks at 5 p.m. Sunday.