Swamp Bats Chip Away at SteepleCats for Victory
July 29, 2015 - New England Collegiate Baseball League (NECBL)
Keene Swamp Bats News Release
Keene once again brought their small ball game to the field and was able to chip away at North Adams pitching and earn the 5-3 victory over the North Adams SteepleCats at Joe Wolfe Field Wednesday night.
The Swamp Bats scored first in the top of the second inning on a sacrifice fly by Shane Matheny, scoring Mike Geannelis and giving Keene a 1-0 lead.
North Adams jumped right back and tied it up in the bottom of the second on an RBI single by third baseman Zach Wall and the score was tied 1-1 after two innings.
This trend continued in the third, with both teams scoring a run and pulling even again, this time at 2-2 after three innings.
Keene was finally able to start to pull away as a run came across on another sacrifice fly by Matheny in the fourth inning, before Keene added another run in the fifth as Lucas Luopa scored on a single by Garrett Christman, followed by an error by SteepleCats right fielder Michael Babb, making it a 4-2 Swamp Bats lead.
Lucas Luopa had his best game of the year. He reached base five times in five plate appearances, all of which led off an inning; including four singles, four stolen bases and three runs scored in the game.
The Swamp Bats scored again on an RBI double for Connor Fitzsimons in the top of the ninth, scoring Luopa to give Keene a 5-2 lead.
North Adams threatened late, scoring one run in the ninth and leaving two men on base, but could not push any more runs across against Keene pitching.
Swamp Bats pitching came in clutch late in the game; throwing a shutout in five of the final six innings. Lincoln Henzman lasted six innings, giving up two runs, one earned, on four hits before Swamp Bat relievers took over and held on for the 5-3 victory.
The amazing stat on the night was the Swamp Bats were able to reach base with the leadoff batter all nine innings. Between Luopa, Geannelis and Chase, Keene continuously started off innings strong, which led to success all night.
The Swamp Bats improve to 11-28 on the season with the victory and are back in action Thursday night as they travel to play the Valley Blue Sox with first pitch at 6:30.
New England Collegiate Baseball League Stories from July 29, 2015
- Swamp Bats Chip Away at SteepleCats for Victory - Keene Swamp Bats
- Mountaineers Wrap up Home Field in First Round - Vermont Mountaineers
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