Mystics Advance to NECBL Championship
August 7, 2016 - New England Collegiate Baseball League (NECBL)
Mystic Schooners News Release
NEWPORT - The Mystic Schooners completed the sweep of the Newport Gulls with a 7-3 victory to advance to the NECBL Championship series for the second straight season.
Chase Lunceford got it started early with a two run blast in the first inning to give the Schooners a 2-0 lead that would stay the same until the sixth.
Justin Cashman got the start for Mystic and threw four shutout innings giving up just four hits while striking out three.
The Newport Gulls played the long ball in the bottom of the sixth to give them the lead. With one man on, Jake Brodt sent a ball that kept rising over the tree beyond the left-center field fence and got lost in the darkness to tie the game at two. Two outs later Chris Chatfield hit the second homer of the inning to give the Gulls a 3-2 lead at the end of six.
It did not take long for the Schooners to tie it back up at three. Casey Baker worked a leadoff walk in the seventh and two outs later, Nick Mascelli lined one to right field to score Baker.
Newport had the bases loaded in the bottom of the eighth with two outs, but Ryan Thomas, who got the win, worked out of the jam to send the Schooners up to bat in the ninth.
That is when the Schooners broke the game wide open. With Tysh Terashima on third and Ryan Ramiz on second, Nick Mascelli sent a sharp grounder to third that was misplayed allowing Tysh to score to give the Schooners the lead. Martin Figueroa followed that up with an RBI single to right field to score Ramiz and keep it rolling. Chase Lunceford lined a single down the right field line scoring Mascelli and advance Figueroa to third. And Aaron Hill hit a line drive to left to bring in Figueroa.
When all was said and done the Schooners went into the bottom of the ninth with a 7-3 lead.
Mason Kukowski was in to pitch for the ninth and picked up the save striking out the final batter to seal the deal.
With the win the Schooners advance to the NECBL Championship for the second year in a row. They will play either the Valley Blue Sox or the Sanford Mainers.
First pitch of the Championship will be at the Shipyard starting at 6:05pm.
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New England Collegiate Baseball League Stories from August 7, 2016
- Mystics Advance to NECBL Championship - Mystic Schooners
- Valley Takes Game One, Mainers Face Elimination - Sanford Mainers
- Gulls Drop Game One, Game Two Tonight in Newport - Newport Gulls
- SteepleCats Sweep Season Series with Mountaineers - North Adams SteepleCats
- Another Memorable SteepleCats Season Comes to An End - North Adams SteepleCats
- SteepleCats Drop Game One of Playoffs - North Adams SteepleCats
- SteepleCats Drop Regular Season Home Finale - North Adams SteepleCats
- Mystic 7, Newport 5 - Mystic Schooners
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