Marc Schwartz

Montpelier, V.T. – The Swamp Bats dropped its second consecutive game for only the second time in the 2012 season Monday night, falling to the Vermont Mountaineers 4-2.

Kevin McAvoy (Bryant) started his fifth game of the year for the Swamp Bats, matching up with Alex Haines (Seton Hill), the reigning NECBL pitcher of the week, in his fifth start for the Mountaineers.

JP Sportman (Central Connecticut St.) and Frankie Schwindel (St. John’s), the two top run producers for the Swamp Bats got the night off against the Mountaineers. They have 32 and 19 runs batted in respectively.

Vermont started the scoring in a wild bottom of the first inning. Cole Peragine (Stony Brook) led off the inning with a slow grounder to Keene third baseman Evan Campbell (Kent State), who was not able to make the routine play due to the sun blinding him. Without sunglasses on, Campbell allowed the grounder to bounce past him and into left field, giving Peragine a leadoff double. He advanced to third base on a sacrifice from Aaron Barbosa (Northeastern) and scored on a balk from McAvoy.

On the ensuing pitch, Rob Kelley (St. Anselm Col.) struck out but advanced to first on a drop third strike. Kelly immediately took second base on a wild pitch, and went to third on a single from Brett Johnson (TCU). Johnson advanced to second on a throwing error from Keene right fielder Jared Walsh (Georgia) to the infield.

Greg Partyka (Bradley), the next batter, flaired a single into shallow left field, which eventually ended the inning for Vermont. Dylan Delacruz (Central Connecticut St.) fielded the single and threw it to Campbell, who tagged out Johnson on the third base line. Campbell then fired it to second base to get Partyka out, who was trying to advance on the throw. Kelly scored on the play to give Vermont a 2-0 lead, but the play did end the inning.

Vermont added another run against McAvoy in the bottom of the third inning. McAvoy hit the #9 batter Chris Cook (George Mason) to start the inning. Cook then stole second base and scored on an RBI single from Peragine. The run gave Vermont a 3-0 lead.

The scored remained at 3-0 until an equally wild bottom of the fifth inning. With two outs, Peragine walked against McAvoy. He advanced to second base on McAvoy’s second balk of the game. Barbosa then came up to the plate and chopped a slow grounder to Campbell at third. Barbosa beat out the throw to first as Peragine rounded third base and scored all the way from second on the infield single. Alert base-running for Peragine gave Vermont a 4-0 lead.

Haines exited the game after the fifth inning. His final line read five scoreless innings with two hits, one walk, and nine strikeouts. Tyler Rogers (Austin Peay) came in of relief, and pitched the next two innings.

The Swamp Bats got on the board in another wild top of the sixth inning. Nelson Ward (Georgia) was ejected to start off the inning after arguing ball and strikes with the home plate umpire. He left the game with a 3-2 count, as Mike Papi (Virginia) finished off the at-bat and drew a walk. A Grant Kay single (Iowa Western CC) put runners on first and second, with a wild pitch advancing them to second and third with no outs. Delacruz grounded out for the first out of the inning. After, Walsh grounded out to first base, scoring Papi from third for Keene’s first run of the game. They added another on a two-out RBI single from Brett Barrett (Southern Maine). That was all the scoring Keene produced on the evening.

McAvoy finished the game tossing seven innings, giving up four runs on seven hits with two walks and three strikeouts. He received the loss, dropping his record to 3-2.

Kyle Grana (Bellarmine) came on for the six out save against the Swamp Bats, only giving up one hit during that span. The save is his fourth of the year.

The win for Haines improved his record to 4-1 on the year.

With the loss, the Swamp Bats record falls to 19-6, while the Mountaineers improved to 11-12.

The Swamp Bats go up against the Mountaineers again Tuesday night in Montpelier, VT for the second of a two-game series. First pitch from Montpelier Recreation Field is set for 6:30 pm.