North Adams Bounces Back with 8-2 Rout

Published on June 15, 2012 under New England Collegiate Baseball League (NECBL)
North Adams SteepleCats News Release


NORTH ADAMS, Mass. - Junior righty Tyler Gebler (Rutgers) gave North Adams his second strong start of the season, as the SteepleCats bounced back from their first loss of 2012 with an 8-2 victory over Holyoke on Thursday evening at MacKenzie Stadium.

One day after falling at home to Danbury in a back-and-forth affair, the SteepleCats (5-1) took an early 3-0 lead and capitalized on late miscues by the Blue Sox (2-4) to earn their league-leading fifth victory of the year.

Gebler - who tossed a complete-game win last Friday at home against Vermont - worked in and out of trouble but was more than good enough for the win. The Island Heights, N.J., native yielded two runs (one earned) on 10 hits while striking out two and and walking none to lower his season ERA to 1.13.

Notre Dame junior Adam Norton was tagged for three runs in the top of the fourth and took the loss to fall to 1-1. The righty allowed three scores on six hits while striking out three and walking none. In fact, only two walks were issued between the two sides, both coming off of Kevin Fortunato - the Blue Sox starting first baseman who later came in to pitch in the ninth.

Both sides combined for 21 hits, with Holyoke out-slugging the SteepleCats by an 11-10 margin. The home side committed four errors while North Adams totaled just one miscue.

Junior first baseman Charlie Law (Rutgers) went 2-for-4 with a run scored and one driven in, while classmate Will Klausing (UT-Pan American) went 2-for-3 and knocked in a run to lead the visitors. Holyoke's Paul McConkey led all players with three hits in five trips with two runs scored.

Gebler found himself in trouble in the bottom of the second with the bases loaded and one out, but a 6-4-3 double play got him out of the jam and allowed the SteepleCats to take the lead in the top of the fourth, when they tagged Norton for three runs after Jeff Roy (URI) led off the inning with a triple and Conor Biggio (Notre Dame) scored him on a base hit to right. Before the inning was over, sophomore Bryan Soloman (Eastern Kentucky) drove home the second run on a sacrifice fly, and Klausing connected two batters later on an RBI single through the right side to make it 3-0.

Holyoke crept closer with an unearned run in the bottom of the fifth before making it a one-run game with another score in the bottom of the seventh, but the SteepleCats answered with a key insurance run in the eighth and turned a once-tight game into a rout with four runs in the top of the ninth to seal the deal.

Tom Bammann (Dowling) and Law each contributed scoreless innings of relief after Gebler closed the books following the seventh inning, with Bammann striking out two during a perfect eighth and Law - who missed all of 2011 recovering from Tommy John Surgery - earning one strikeout while working around a hit to shut the door in the ninth.

The SteepleCats hit the road on Friday night for the second time in as many days, as North Adams heads to Danbury for a 6:30 p.m. showdown against the Westerners.

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New England Collegiate Baseball League Stories from June 15, 2012


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