FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                             Contact: Tom Lima

June 25th, 2025                                                          Director of Media and Broadcast Operations

                                                                                   By Ethan Poole-Analyst

                                                                                    (401) 824-6314 - broadcast@newportgulls.com

Newport RI-The Newport Gulls took their seventh home win of the season on Wednesday, June 25, a 10-5 victory over the Danbury Westerners powered by a three RBI night from Ryan Novak (Miami).

Newport improved to 11-6 on the year with wins in six of their last seven, while Danbury dropped to 5-9 on the campaign. The Gulls now hold sole possession of first place in the southern division of the NECBL.

Finbar O’Brien (Gonzaga), who has dominated thus far, struggled to find his command early. Hitting Danbury’s Garret Larsen on the first pitch of the game and then issuing a four pitch walk to Michael Sellrecht and delivering another two balls to Peter Link, finally finding the strike zone
on his eighth pitch of the night and inducing a popout on his ninth. A double steal put runners on second and third and a bobbled ground ball from Kyle Branch allowed Danbury to strike first. Branch ended up getting the runner at first on that play, and then ended the half inning one
batter later. Andreaus Lewis (Manhattan) barely missed a home run in the bottom of the first, he was left
stranded on first.

While O’Brien still had issues with command in the second, issuing a walk, he also began to find his groove, striking out two Westerners.
After two quick outs from Danbury starter Jacob Hines in the second, Newport rallied, putting two men on before becoming the benefactors of sloppy defense. A lazy fly ball from Novak was dropped by Westerners left fielder Teddy Cashman, scoring Josh Castellani (Clemson) and
tying the game. O’Brien’s up and down outing continued in the third, he once again hit Larsen but notched two
more Ks and escaped the inning unscathed.

In the inning’s bottom half, Lewis once again pulled a single and then stole second, however, he yet again wasn’t able to score, as A.J. Evasco (Kansas St.) grounded out to end the frame. O’Brien started the fourth with yet another walk, but the inning - and his outing ended with Lewis
throwing out his second potential base stealer of the evening. O’Brien wasn’t as sharp as he was during his five inning 11 strikeout performance last week that earned him NECBL pitcher of the week, but he still performed quite well. Striking out six and allowing one run, along with three walks and two hit batters.

In the bottom half, Newport started the inning by stringing together base hits. Castellani led off with a hard hit grounder that bounced off the glove of Danbury second baseman Michael Iannazzo and Adrian Areizaga (Miami) popped a ball into the outfield which dropped in between
three fielders. Then, with the bases loaded, Cade Brown (Georgia Tech) played wall ball, going opposite field and hitting the ball off the distance marker in right center field, bringing home two Gulls and giving Newport their first lead of the night.

Hines was relieved by Ben Waterman, who reloaded the bases by hitting Petey Craska (North
Alabama) but escaped further damage by inducing a groundout from Branch. Aidan Coleman (Pittsburgh) took the bump in the fifth, and - partially thanks to a web gem from Kyle Branch, sat the Westerners down 1-2-3.

While Evasco and Castellani led off the bottom of the fifth with back to back opposite field singles and for the second inning in a row, the bases were loaded on a hit by pitch, this time, it was Areizaga who wore a fastball. Novak doubled the Newport lead to four runs with a seeing eye single that split the defense up the middle, the two run base hit chased Waterman from the game in favor of Kaden Hillburger, who was thrown into the challenge of facing the top of Newport’s order. Matthew Bolton (Binghamton) kept the beat going, ripping a two run double down the right field line and breaking the game open, bringing the score to 7-1. Hillburger ended the rally there and sent the
game to the sixth.

Hillburger worked a quick sixth inning, and his squad got their first hit of the night in the top of the seventh courtesy of a Jack Lutte single, and then climbed back into the game on a two run homer off the bat of Grayson Sparr, touching up Coleman for his first allowed runs of the
season. The rally continued with a double down the right field line from William Cook. After a mound visit, Coleman settled down a bit, but was unable to get the inning’s third out. With two outs, he was taken out for John Downing (Seton Hall) after he loaded the bases. Representing
the tying run, Stellrecht was caught looking as the traditional seventh inning serenade of take me out to the ballgame began.

With Newport’s lead whittled down, Novak got a run back with a long solo home run over the right field fence, then an infield hit from Branch fully restored the Gulls advantage to six runs, bringing the score to 9-3 heading into the eighth. Matthew Mcintire cut that deficit to five with an RBI single, but Areizaga continued his solid night with a sacrifice fly, once again fortifying the Gulls edge to six runs.

Cade O’Leary (Mississippi State) finished the game in the ninth, giving up another run in the process, but it did little to dampen the spirits of a lively Wednesday Night Cardines Field crowd. The Gulls head up to Massachusetts tomorrow for a matchup with the North Adams
SteepleCats, while North Adams sits at 4-9, one of those wins came in Newport. The game can be watched on NECBL+ with a start time of 6:30.