The SwampBats crushed the Bristol Blues 12-1 on Saturday night in a game that featured two weather delays.

After the first pitch was delayed 59 minutes due to field conditions and then lightning in the area, the SwampBats jumped in front early. Joe Jaconski (Penn State) walked to lead off the bottom of the first and as the rain began to come down, Jake Koonin (Princeton) made it rain himself with a 360-foot home run to left-center field, giving the SwampBats a 2-0 lead. In the third, Nick Romano (Florida Atlantic) doubled the SwampBats’ lead with an opposite-field home run, his first of the year, to left-center which also scored Josh Kross (Cincinnati). Two batters later, debutant Sam Biller (Connecticut) blasted the SwampBats’ third two-run home run of the night into the trees in straightaway center, putting the SwampBats up 6-0. After a solo home run for Bristol began the fourth, lightning in the area forced the game to be paused. This ended starter Nick Timpanelli’s (Charleston Southern) night after three-plus innings. He allowed only that one run and also turned a clean 1-6-3 double play in the first inning.

After a 53-minute break, Connecticut’s Joe Carrea entered for Timpanelli. He struck out the first batter he faced, and the next batter hit a sinking line drive to left field. Biller hustled in from his position, laid out, and made the catch, continuing his dream summer debut. Carrea finished after three near-perfect innings, allowing only one baserunner on a walk while using his devastating slider to strike out three. Southpaw Freddy Beruvides (Virginia) pitched a scoreless seventh, and then the SwampBats ran away with it in the bottom half. First, Jaconski laid down a beautiful bunt on the wet grass, which the Bristol pitcher threw into right field. Then, Kross, in the final at-bat of the summer for the MLB Draft prospect, doubled into the left field corner for his 21st RBI. Koonin followed with a line drive single, and two batters later Alex Calarco (Maryland) knocked in him and Kross with a single. With the score 9-1 after a pitching change, Biller made it a 3 RBI debut with a single to score Calarco. Indiana’s Andrew Wiggins capped off the rally with the SwampBats’ fourth two-run home run of the night into the center field trees. Sean Finn (Connecticut) pitched the final two innings, striking out three while throwing 95 miles an hour.

Keene (16-8) is one game behind Vermont for the best record in the NECBL. They visit the Mountaineers on Monday before returning home for Inclusion Night presented by Southwestern Community Services and M+T Bank on Tuesday against Sanford.