BRISTOL, Conn. – The Newport Gulls won six straight playoff games and clinched their league-leading seventh New England Collegiate Baseball League (NECBL) championship with an 8-4 victory over Bristol on Tuesday night at Muzzy Field.

After losing their playoff opener, the top seeded Gulls won consecutive games against the Ocean State Waves, and then swept their Final Four series against the Danbury Westerners and the championship series against the Blues to win their first Fay Vincent, Sr. Cup since 2014.

Grant Umberger’s (Toledo) season-high 11 strikeouts across 5.1 relief innings led Newport to an 8-4 victory in game two, adding to his total of 11.1 scoreless innings throughout the playoffs.

Luke Beckstein (Northeastern) went 3-for-4 on the night with three singles and two runs scored to lead all hitters. Beckstein was one of three Gulls to record multi-hit performances, joining Niko Brini (UConn) and Jacob Burley (Wake Forest).

Newport got off to a quick start with a four-run first inning, with the first four batters reaching base. Luke Beckstein started the inning with a single to right field and Michael Anderson (URI) was hit by a pitch to put runners on first and second with no outs. Tyler Hare (Wofford) cleared the bases with a three-run homer, his second home run of the postseason and eleventh overall. Billy Butler (Southern Mississippi) continued his hot stretch with an RBI single to bring home Slate Alford (Mississippi State), his ninth hit and eleventh RBI of the postseason. 

Following a complete game shutout in his last playoff start, Blues All-Star Jagger Duquette (Wagner) recorded just one out and surrendered four hits and four earned runs, the most since July 1 against the Upper Valley Nighthawks.

Bristol responded with a four-run second inning to tie the game, starting with a Tyler Fote (Central CT State) walk and Darius Troche (West Chester) single to put runners on first and second with no outs. Both runners advanced on an error by the catcher, and back-to-back RBI singles cut the deficit in half. Jordan Peyton (Towson) brought home Fote with an RBI single and Connor Goodman (Maine Orono) scored Troche with a base hit of his own. Gavin Noriega (Bryant) continued Bristol’s rally with a third straight RBI single to bring home Peyton, and Skye Selinsky (Columbia) added a sacrifice fly to tie the game at four.

Gulls All-Star starter Kevin Seitter (Quinnipiac) allowed six hits, four runs (two unearned) and two walks across 1.2 innings. 

Newport regained the lead in the fourth inning, beginning with a leadoff single by Brini, who advanced to second on a balk and later scored on an RBI single by Burley. Beckstein and Anderson hit two straight singles to bring home Burley and later advanced to second and third on a passed ball. Both runners scored on a two-out wild pitch to give the Gulls a 7-4 lead heading into the fifth inning. 

Umberger entered the game in relief for Seitter and recorded a season-high 11 strikeouts across 5.1 scoreless no-hit innings, at one point retiring 12-of-13 batters, earning his second win of the playoffs.

The Gulls added an insurance run in the eighth inning and Braden Ostrander (Florida Atlantic) closed out the game with two scoreless innings to seal an 8-4 victory. 

The NECBL Championship trophy is named in honor of the father of former commissioner of Major League Baseball Fay Vincent Jr., who served as the president of the NECBL from 1998 to 2004. Fay Jr. commissioned the trophy to be named after his father, Fay Vincent, Sr., who was an outstanding athlete in high school and at Yale University before going on to become a respected local umpire and an official in the NFL.