LYNN — The North Shore Navigators got off to a promising start in Tuesday’s Futures Collegiate Baseball League game, but the Brockton Rox scored three times in the seventh inning and four in the ninth to put the game out of reach and coast to a 10-3 win at Fraser Field.
North Shore fell to 18-33 on the season with its third consecutive loss, while Brockton lifted its record to 24-27 and snapped a three-game losing streak.
Right fielder JP Knight (Tufts) and designated hitter George Sutherland (Cochise) each went 2-for-4 to lead a North Shore offense that totaled eight hits in the game. They were each responsible for one of the team’s RBI, while three different players scored runs for the Navs.
North Shore quickly took a 1-0 lead in the first as second baseman Joey Murphy (Saint Joseph’s of Maine) led off with a double to left field and scored after Knight shot a two-out double into the left-center gap.
Marblehead native Garret Keough (Holy Cross) dealt a scoreless first to begin his fourth start of the summer, but Brockton tied the score in its half of the second as first baseman Matt Ronai (Merrimack) hit a sacrifice fly to center field after catcher Jack Kelly (Northwestern) walked and third baseman Zack Gelof (Virginia) doubled.
The teams traded single runs in the fourth inning to keep the score tied. Shortstop Charlie Maxwell (Northwestern) singled home Brockton’s second run with one out in the top half of the inning before shortstop Sal Frelick’s (Boston College) fielder’s choice grounder to second base allowed North Shore to knot the game at 2-2.
Knight led off the fifth with a triple to the batter’s eye in center field and scored on Sutherland’s two-out single, which gave the Navs their first lead of the game in the fifth.
Brockton knotted the score as left fielder Jared Sharkey (Wheaton) reached on Knight’s two-base error in right in the sixth. Sharkey hit a sacrifice fly before Maxwell and center fielder Joe Lomuscio (Brown) hit run-scoring singles to give the Rox a 6-3 lead in the following frame.
The Rox scored their four ninth-inning runs on five hits, including another off the bat of Maxwell who went 3-for-5 with a run scored and two RBI. Lomuscio and Gelof had two hits apiece, while three Rox players scored twice. Nolan Collins (Bates) earned his fifth win of the season against no defeats for Brockton as he held the Navs to just two hits over four scoreless innings.
Keough pitched three innings of one-hit ball to start the game for North Shore. Lefty Jeam Castillo (New England College) was charged with the loss as the second reliever out of the bullpen, allowing three runs on four hits over two innings.
The Navs return to Fraser Field to host the Pittsfield Suns at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the second game of their three-game homestand.