Newport erupted for ten runs in the bottom of the fourth, and first baseman Noah Martinez blasted two home runs in a 16-1 win over Danbury.
The Gulls (21-11) have won three ballgames in a row and are 2.5 games ahead of the Martha’s Vineyard Sharks for the Coastal Division lead. The Westerners (14-19) have lost seven of their last nine games but remain a game back of Valley for second place in the West Division.
Martinez went 4-5 with two home runs and 7 RBIs, and he came a triple away from hitting for the cycle. He was attacked with fastballs all night, but he punished any heater that leaked over the heart of the plate. The Central Connecticut State product has three long balls over his last two games and is hitting .500 over his current three-game hitting streak.
Newport also collected a season-high eighteen hits and earned the season sweep of Danbury with the victory. Gulls’ third baseman Slate Alford went 4-5 with four runs scored, and left fielder Ben Rounds had a 2-4 night with a two-bagger and a run scored. Colton Ledbetter went 3-4 with 4 RBIs and two runs scored, and he smoked a three-run home run over the right-field wall in the ten-run fourth.
Jackson Taylor and Danniel Rivera were the bright spots in the Danbury lineup tonight. Taylor hit his first home run of the summer in the top of the seventh, and Rivera went 2-4 with a double and a single.
Newport’s lineup did not waste any time scoring their first two runs of the ballgame. Gulls’ shortstop Spenser Smith ignited the offense by lacing a double off the center-field wall, and Alec Makarewicz smoked a single into center field to plate the Gulls’ first run of the night. Colton Ledbetter followed suit with a base hit into center field, and Makarewicz scored all the way from first to put Danbury in an early 2-0 hole. Newport loaded the bases after scoring these runs, but Westerners’ starter Kyle Roche worked his way out of the jam by making Bryce Broecker his first strikeout victim of the night.
Danbury could not capitalize on scoring opportunities in the next three innings, and Newport made them pay in the bottom of the fourth. The Gulls plated ten runs in the frame, sent thirteen batters to the plate, and four of those runs touched home plate before an out was recorded. Martinez roped a 109-mph RBI double in his first at-bat, and he put a bow on the nightmare inning by launching a two-run bomb over the high right-center field wall. Between these two extra-base hits, the Gulls sprayed three straight RBI singles all over the outfield grass, and Colton Ledbetter crushed his ninth home run of the summer to blow the game wide open.
Gulls’ starter Jake Garland (3-1) hurled five shutout innings and earned his third win of the summer. The Westerners’ lineup did not make his life easy, but he navigated his way through some turbulence to keep Danbury off the scoreboard. The Miami product conceded five hits, walked one, and struck out seven.
Kyle Roche (2-2) suffered the loss in Friday night’s contest. Roche limited the damage in his first three innings of work, but he did not record an out in the bottom of the fourth. The right-hander went 3.0 innings, surrendered five runs on seven hits, walked two, struck out two, and hit three batters.
The Westerners will look to rebound on Saturday night when they travel back to Rogers Park and take on the North Shore Navigators. In their first meeting, North Shore escaped with a 3-2 victory behind an excellent start from Luke Marshall. Marshall will try to replicate this success against the Westerners’ lineup on Saturday, and Sean Hogan will make his fifth start of the summer for Danbury. The first pitch is scheduled for 6:30 PM ET, so tune into the NECBL Network and hear Kyle DeSantis on the call.