GULLS MASH, EARN PELL BRIDGE SERIES VICTORY

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Newport Gulls

operations@newportgulls.com

SOUTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. - The Newport Gulls crossed the Pell Bridge and into Wakefield with not only a four-game winning streak, but with vengeance. The last time the Gulls played the Waves at Old Mountain Field was on Saturday, July 12th, an evening the Gulls team so badly wants to forget. Newport brought their A-game to Ocean State, which had no answer for the rival Gulls.

Newport's offense continued its productive stretch with leadoff man Matt Bolton (Binghamton) reaching on a single, before the Waves turned a double play on a hard hit grounder by Michael Gupton (Memphis). Ocean State starter Marshall Whitmer could not capitalize on the stellar defense, hitting Colby Wallace (East Carolina), and surrendering an RBI double to Adam Agresit (St. John's). Newport would not stop there. Randy Seymour (Michigan State) would also be plunked to put two on, and a Kyle Branch (Oklahoma) infield hit to the right side confused the Waves' defense, with Agresti scoring on heads-up baserunning. Will Fosberg (Northeastern) popped up to end the inning, but the Gulls were quickly up a pair.

Gavin Gregor had the same start as Newport's offense, a leadoff single, this time off starter Casen Murphy (Louisville). However, baserunners would be hard to find during Murphy's outing, who got a fielder's choice groundout, a punchout, and a popout to get out of the first unscathed.

In the second, Petey Craska (North Alabama) wasted no time and mashed his fourth homer of the season, a solo-shot that Craska knew was gone off the bat. Ryan Novak (MiamiOH) struck out before Bolton's second single in as many innings. Back-to-back flyouts ended the top of the second, as left fielder Zach Plasschaert reached over the left field fence to rob Colby Wallace of a two-run homer, but Newport still led 3-0. Murphy dealt in the home half, facing the minimum and adding another strikeout to his outing, catching Jack LaRose looking to end the inning.

Adam Agresti continued the Gulls' onslaught of Whitmer with a leadoff double, his second extra-base hit of the day. Seymour got his first hit, a single to put runners at the corners. Kyle Branch grounded into a rare double play up the middle, but Agresti was able to score, giving Newport a four-run cushion. Whitmer was able to strike out Fosberg for the final out of the third, Whitmer's last action in the ballgame. After administering a leadoff walk to Justin Hackett, Casen Murphy proved to be efficient, showing similar flashes that C.J. Bott showed in the previous game vs. the Bristol Blues. Murphy induced a chopper off the bat of Zach Plasschaert to Craksa at first, a Gavin Greger flyout to left, and a Ryan Gerety strikeout to keep Ocean State scoreless. 

Teague Broadhead replaced Whitmer in the fourth and walked the dangerous Craska to lead off the inning. Broadhead and his solid fastball did damage against the Newport bats, but a wild pitch and a Bolton groundout put Petey on third with Gupton at the dish. Another wild pitch that confused everyone, whether Gupton got a piece of Broadhead's offering, scored Craska. Going into the bottom of the fourth, Newport added to its lead, now up 5-0. Greg Pettay jumped on Murphy with a leadoff single, but like clockwork, Murphy worked around the runner, retiring the next three hitters in a combined seven pitches to get out of the fourth.

With the meat of the Gulls' order up, Broadhead shut down Newport for the first time on Sunday evening, facing the minimum, capping off his day with a strikeout of Randy Seymour. On the other side, Murphy ran into some trouble seeing multiple runners reach for the first time after back-to-back one-out hits had Justin Hackett on third and Plasschaert on first. The southpaw eyed in on the top of the order and dialed in his fastball, freezing hitters early and getting chases late. Murphy would punch out both Greger and Gerety to escape the jam and Ocean State with a goose egg into the sixth.

With Broadhead gone after two innings, the Waves pointed towards Max Marchetti, who got two quick outs, a lineout by Branch, and a Fosberg strikeout before things started to spiral out of control. Marchetti drilled Craska, the third Gull hit in the game, and Ryan Novak belted a hanging offspeed pitch into the right center for his second homer of the season. Newport's lead was up to 7-0, but would not stay that way. With the bases cleared, Bolton got his third single of the day, his 12th hit vs. the Waves team this season in six games, and his third three-hit game vs. the franchise. Michael Gupton followed up the knock with a scorcher into left that Plasschaert could not rob this time around, as the baseball got out in a hurry. The second two-out two-run blast had Newport up 9-0 going into the bottom of the sixth.

With Newport's offense consistently mashing, Murphy followed suit with his third consecutive strikeout, this time retiring Greg Pettay looking. Murphy would walk Coen Niclai just before getting his seventh strikeout of the evening. Casen Murphy's day would finish after Ryan King's third flyout to right field, and the lefty exited with a season-high six innings of scoreless baseball and seven strikeouts.

The ball was given to James Nichols, a late addition to the Waves roster, after a tough sixth from Marchetti, and although he walked three Newport Gulls to load the bases, he worked out of the seventh, getting Novak to pop up to get out of the self-induced jam. Cade O'Leary (Florida State) got the ball for Newport and had to follow up an awe-inspiring day from Murphy. Although the Waves got a pair of singles off the righty, no runs would come across as O'Leary got a pop out and two flyouts to keep the Waves off the board.

Nichols would give way to Braeden Perry out of North Kingstown in the 8th, who worked diligently for Ocean State, facing the top of the order and retiring each batter after pop outs from Bolton and Gupton, and a Colby Wallace flyout into centerfield. O'Leary got his first two batters to ground out and strike out in the bottom of the eighth before walking Kayle Pisano. Pisano made his way across the diamond after a wild pitch, and Ocean State finally scored its first run on a single by Ryan King into left field. O'Leary settled back in with a punchout to end the eighth with Newport up 9-1.

Going into the ninth, the ballgame was seemingly in the hands of Newport, and even after falling in order to the Waves closer Luc Lavigueur, there was plenty of confidence with O'Leary going back out in the bottom of the ninth for the three-inning save. Justin Hackett worked his second leadoff walk of the day, but this time, O'Leary would not allow a hit following. Instead, he shut down the next three batters he faced, getting Ryan Gerety to ground out to Petey Craska at first to end the ballgame.

Newport's 9-1 win over Ocean State kept the Gulls perfect following the all-star break at 5-0 and up to 26-14 on the season, one win shy of last year's 27 regular-season wins. The loss for the Waves officially eliminated them from playoff contention, and the Gulls would take the Pell Bridge season series, 4-2, for the sixth-straight season. 

The Gulls passed two difficult road tests over the weekend and now focus their attention on the scorching-hot Danbury Westerners for a double-header on Monday, July 28th at Cardines Field. Game one is set for 3:00 p.m., with the Westerners serving as the home team. Game two will follow at 6:35 p.m. with Newport back as the home side. Both games will be seven-inning contests and will be streamed live on ESPN+.

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The Newport Gulls, members of the 13-team New England Collegiate Baseball League (NECBL), are a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, founded as the Rhode Island Gulls in 1998 in Cranston, R.I., before moving to Newport in 2001. In addition to recruiting, fielding, and developing a team of the nation’s top collegiate baseball athletes and attracting 50,000 fans annually to Cardines Field, the predominantly volunteer organization strives to benefit the community via summer camps, reading programs, fundraisers, scholarships, and charitable donations – totaling over $1 million since 2001. The Gulls are eight-time champions of the NECBL – the winningest franchise in league history – and were ranked as the overall No. 1 summer collegiate baseball team in the country by Perfect Game USA in 2012.

For more information about the Newport Gulls, visit facebook.com/newportgulls, follow the Gulls on Twitter @NewportGulls or visit www.newportgulls.com.