The Newport Gulls knocked off the Bristol Blues 10-7 on Friday, July 11 to reclaim first place in
the NECBL southern division. Newport improved to 20-10 while Bristol fell to 19-11 on the
season, which is entering its final quarter.
The game was an early slugfest, with Randy Seymour wasting no time, launching a three run
homer in the bottom of the first to give the Gulls a 3-0 lead, a deficit that Bristol failed to recover
from all night.
It wasn’t for a lack of trying though, Gulls starting pitcher Brennan Phillips (Oklahoma St) had
his struggles, and Bristol’s Trevor Hansen touched him up in the second with a long two run
home run to dead center which cut the Gulls lead to a run.
Newport re-upped their lead to three in the bottom half though, Matthew Bolton
(Binghamton) ripped a two run single to boost Newport’s lead to 5-2. Bristol got a run right
back in the top of the third on a Nate Lincoln RBI single, but the Gulls responded with two of
their own in the bottom of the third. Kyle Branch slammed an RBI double and Bolton added his
third RBI of the evening with a sac fly, putting Newport up 7-3 a third of the way into the game.
After both teams were held off the board in the fourth, the Blues halved their deficit. Dean Oneill
doubled two runs home, bringing the score to 7-5 in the top of the fifth.
In the bottom of the sixth, Michael Gupton (Memphis) led off with a double and advanced to
third on a base hit. He then slid home safely on a ground ball from Seymour, gaining a run back
for the Gulls.
Newport added a run in each of the next two innings, Gupton lifted a sacrifice fly to score Adam
Agresti (St. John’s) in the 7th, and then Agresti switched roles in the 8th, bringing home Ryan
Novak to put the Gulls fully in control, giving them a 10-5 lead.
Jack Cropper took the bump in the ninth, but after getting two quick outs and only allowing one
baserunner, he faltered. Cropper walked Jamie Palmeese after a disputed check swing and
then walked the next three batters, at one point having a streak of 10 straight balls. Two runs
were walked in to make the score 10-7 and put the tying run on first. Cropper recovered though,
striking out Oneill to end the game.
Newport heads across the bridges tomorrow to take on the Ocean State Waves, first pitch
against their cross state rivals is set for 6:30 on NECBL+