The SwampBats allowed four runs in the ninth inning, but three home runs paved the way for a 9-6 win over the North Adams SteepleCats on Wednesday night at home.

North Adams took the lead in the first with a Texas-league double down the left-field line, an error, and a single. The SwampBats turned it around quickly in the bottom of the first. A Jake Koonin (Princeton) double to the wall started the rally. Then Sam Biller (Connecticut) hit a ground ball to shortstop. The throw to first was wide of the bag, and when the first baseman attempted a swipe tag, the ball popped out of his mitt and into right field, allowing Koonin to score. Two batters later, Kent State’s Ripken Reese put the SwampBats in front with a single to score Biller. In the second inning, Wake Forest’s Austin Hawke, who had come close several times before, drilled his first home run of the season to left field, also scoring Indiana’s Andrew Wiggins. The party got even better in the third inning after singles by Nick Romano (Florida Atlantic) and Reese set the table for Penn State’s Bryce Molinaro. Molinaro crushed a pitch 395 feet over the scoreboard in right-center, his first blast of the season, making it 7-1 Keene. Like Hawke, he was greeted with enthusiastic plaudits on his way back to the dugout.

The SteepleCats loaded the bases and scored on an infield hit in the fourth, but starter Jared Leesman (Louisville) escaped with no further damage. Leesman finished with two runs allowed and four strikeouts in four full innings. The SwampBats added to their lead in the sixth when Koonin, who went four for four with a walk and two doubles on Tuesday,, hit a towering two-run home run to left field. It was his eighth of the season, and coming into the day nobody else in the league had more than six. The SwampBats loaded the bases later in the inning, but could not score again. Sinkerballer Stephen Bangs (Franklin Pierce) earned the win for three innings of near-perfect relief, allowing one baserunner and striking out one. He was helped out by a nice snag on a line drive by Molinaro at first base to finish the seventh. 

Keene led 9-2 heading into the top of the ninth and looked to be cruising to victory. Instead, North Adams hit five singles in a row to begin the inning, cutting the lead to 9-4 with the bases loaded and no one out. Desperately needing an out, Sean Finn (Connecticut) induced a foul tip that could have been strike three. The ball glanced off catcher JD Jones’ (Rutgers) mitt, and he somehow caught it with his bare hand off the deflection, sealing the strikeout and turning the tide in the inning. After a bases-loaded walk brought the tying run to the plate, The SteepleCats produced a major scare with a flyball to deep center field, but Jaconski caught it on the warning track. While a run scored on the play, the tying run stayed at home plate, and the next batter flew out to end the game.

Keene (18-9) visits Sanford on Friday and will be home next Wednesday for First Responder & Military Appreciation night sponsored by Service Credit Union and Monadnock Ford.