Wild One Ends In Keenes' Favor, Defeat Westerners 9-6
July 16, 2013 - New England Collegiate Baseball League (NECBL)
Keene Swamp Bats News Release
Danbury tied the game in a wild ninth inning, but Keene's offense took care of things in extra innings, defeating the Westerners 9-6.
Nathan Kirby continued his dominant summer, again dazzling in Danbury on Tuesday night.
The left-hander out of the University of Virginia had his strikeout pitch working, as he fanned seven Westerners in six innings, surrendering just one run, unearned, on two hits.
The Swamp Bat offense stifled through four innings, but finally broke through in the fifth. Zach Lucas, Louisville, and Matt Ford, Hofstra, tallied back-to-back RBI hits to give Keene a 3-0 lead.
After Danbury responded in the sixth with an unearned run off of Kirby, the Bats struck back with two runs in the seventh.
Ford and JP Sportman, Central Connecticut State University, picked up an RBI a piece with sacrifice flies to right field, to extend the lead to 3-1.
Paul Covelle, Frankin Pierce University, pitched a a perfect seventh inning in relief for Kirby but in the eighth, Dustin Cook out of San Jacinto College ran into trouble.
After Cook gave up a one out walk, John Testani came on and smashed a two run homer to cut the lead to 5-3.
After a scoreless top of the ninth, things got wild in the ninth
James Connell, Kennesaw State, came in to try to shut things down but failed to do so. After loading the bases with two outs, Connell hit consecutive Westerns to drive in the fourth and fifth runs.
After a scoreless tenth inning, Keene again got the offense going in the 11th.
With the bases loaded, Lucas drove in one run on an RBI single to right field and the next batter Ford, put things out of reach with a mammoth three run homer over the right field fence to give Keene a 9-- The resilient Westerners scored one run in the bottom half of the inning, but Kent State's John Birkbeck closed things out for Keene to give the Swamp Bats the 9-6 victory.
Keene wins its fourth in a row and now moves to 15-13 on the season, the furthest above .500 the Swamp Bats have been this season.
The Swamp Bats will be back at Alumni Field on Wednesday night to face off against the Plymouth Pilgrims. First pitch is set for 6:30 p.m.
New England Collegiate Baseball League Stories from July 16, 2013
- Holyoke Continues Homestand against Vermont - Valley Blue Sox
- Wild One Ends In Keenes' Favor, Defeat Westerners 9-6 - Keene Swamp Bats
- Gulls Fall to Muskrats in 10 Innings - Newport Gulls
- Bay Sox Walk off vs. Mystic - New Bedford Bay Sox
- Newport Sends Flock of Gulls to 2013 All-Star Game - Newport Gulls
- 'Cats Bats Kept in Check - North Adams SteepleCats
- Newport Gulls Split Double Header at Sanford - Newport Gulls
- Mainers and Gulls Split the Times-Two - Sanford Mainers
- NECBL Announces Participants for ASG Skills Competitions - NECBL
- Westerners - News and Notes - Danbury Westerners
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