After not playing since they beat the Keene Swamp Bats by a score of 9-2 on Tuesday, July 24th, the Danbury Westerners kept their playoff hopes alive with a 15-8 win over the Newport Gulls on July 30th. The Westerners rode a seven run second inning to victory and closed within two games of a playoff spot in the Southern Division. The Mystic Schooners, who currently hold the final playoff spot in the division, are 21-20 with three games remaining, and the Westerners sit at 18-21 with five games left. After the loss, the Gulls are just a half game better than the Westerners and 1.5 games behind Mystic at 20-22. The reason for the long layoff was that four games were postponed between the completed games against Keene and Newport, forcing Danbury to play four games (two doubleheaders) over the next three days. 

In the game against the Gulls, Newport got on the board first with an unearned run in the second, but Danbury responded with seven runs in the bottom half. Daniel Franchi (Binghamton University) hit a grand slam and Aaron Antonini (Middle Tennessee State University) later added a bases clearing double. The Gulls showed fight the whole game, but Danbury continued to tack on as they had a season-high 15 runs. 

Tim Tawa (Stanford University) led off the third inning with a solo homerun for the Gulls and John Mazza (Northeastern University) added an RBI double in the fourth, but Justin Lebek (Davidson College) hit a two-run homer for the Westerners in the bottom half. Newport then added a run in each of the fifth and sixth innings, before Danbury again responded with a two-run seventh. 

The Gulls put up a three-run eighth inning to get within three runs at 11-8, but Justin Lebek’s second homerun of the game, a three-run shot, was part of a four-run bottom half to round out the scoring. Kevin Stone (Harvard University) got the start and win, going 5.2 innings while giving up five runs (four earned) on seven hits. Also of note, Trey McLoughlin (Fairfield University) ended any hope of a late-game comeback, giving up just two walks over the final 1.2 hitless innings for the Westerners. 

Up next for the Westerners is a doubleheader on Tuesday against the Plymouth Pilgrims, in which they will be the home team for the first game at Forges Field. The Pilgrims are in first place in the Southern Division at 23-16.