Upper Valley scores late to top Mountaineers
HARTFORD, Vt. – The Vermont Mountaineers fell on the road 9-3 against the Upper Valley Nighthawks in New England Collegiate Baseball League action on Tuesday night at Maxfield Sports Complex. This was the fourth game of the Governor’s Cup. Each team has now won two games.
The Mountaineers’ bats came to life in their first at bats of the night. Evan Giordano (Stony Brook / Sewell, N.J.) led off the game with a single and later came around to score on an RBI single by Matt McDermott (Coastal Carolina / Little Falls, N.J.) Through an inning of play, Vermont led 1-0.
The Nighthawks were kept off the scoreboard until the fourth inning. With two outs in the innings, William Sullivan drew a walk. Then three straight batters reached base via hits. Max Viera followed Sullivan with a single. Raphael Pelletier dumped a single into right field to score Sullivan. The next batter, Luca Trigiani doubled to plate two both Viera and Pelletier.
A couple innings later, the Mountaineers responded with two runs to tie the game at three. Adam Retzbach (Lehigh / Greenfield Township, Pa.) singled to right field to score Giordano who reached on a scoring error to leadoff the inning. A few batters later, Vincent Cimini (Boston College / Scranton, Pa.) drew a bases loaded walk to score Curtis Robison (Penn State / Dillsburg, Pa.).
In the seventh inning, the Nighthawks regained the lead. With two outs in the inning, Alan Roden doubled into the left center field gap to plate Andrew Walker who reached on a walk earlier in the inning. The next batter, Sullivan singled to left field to score Roden from second to give the Nighthawks the two run lead.
In the eighth, the Nighthawks recorded three straight hits to start the inning. Bryce Callahan belted a double into field to score Trigiani. Later in the inning and with two runners on, Gerig Anglin ripped a ball over the right field fence for his second home run of the season. The big hit for Anglin gave the Nighthawks the 9-3 lead.
Upper Valley would hold the Mountaineers scoreless through the next two innings to hold on and take the fourth iteration of the Governor’s cup. With the win, Upper Valley improves to 11-8 on the season. With the loss, the Mountaineers drop to 10-10. Randall Alejo earned the win in relief for the Nighthawks. Tucker Wittman (UMass Amherst / Philadelphia, Pa.) picked up the loss out of the bullpen for the Mountaineers.
The Mountaineers’ next game will be on the road Thursday, July 1st when they travel to Lynn, Massachusetts to take on the North Shore Navigators at Fraser Field. You can watch it online on the NECBL Broadcast Network.
