The Martha’s Vineyard Sharks posted a pair of wins over Connecticut opponents, improving to 3-0 in New England Collegiate Baseball League play.
MV powered past the Danbury Westerners, 8-3, at the Shark Tank in Oak Bluffs on a beautiful, clear and cool Thursday evening.
The Sharks scored two runs in the first inning and three in the third to take control of the game. Drew Grace (Univ. of Kentucky) tripled to center field and scored on a single to left by Levi Usher (Louisville) to put the Sharks on the board. Usher stole second, advanced to third on an error and scored on Tommy Seidel’s (Alabama) grounder to second.
Matt Woods (Bryant) led off the third with a single to shallow right, Grace singled to left-center and stole second, with Woods putting the hosts up 3-0 on an error by the catcher. Usher ripped a triple down the left field line to score Grace and Matt Donlan (UConn) capped off the rally with a single to center, scoring Usher for a 5-0 lead.
Harvard’s Jake Berger blasted a homer to right to lead off the fifth and the Sharks added two more runs in the sixth. Tommy Seidel hit an RBI single to score Levi Usher, who led off with his third single of the night and Matt Donlan scored Seidl on a grounder to first.
The Sharks pitching staff scattered six hits and combined for 13 strikeouts. Florida State’s Jackson Nezuh got the start and held the Danbury bats at bay for the first three innings. Southpaw Drew Mead from Marymount University pitched the next two innings and got the win. Alex Galvan (Louisville) came on in the sixth and his Cardinals teammate Riley Phillips pitched the eighth and ninth to close out the win.
Wednesday night at Muzzy Field in Bristol, Conn., the Sharks blanked the Blues, 4-0. The hosts were plagued by sloppy play. Jake Berger and Drew Grace scored on a pair of wild pitches in the fourth inning, Grace scored again in the sixth on an error by the first baseman and Dylan Judd (UMass) came home on a wild pitch in the ninth after leading off with a single.
Sharks righthander Will Greer (Bucknell) got the start and struck out four in three innings before giving way to Duke lefty Oliver McCarthy, who pitched two innings of hitless ball to get the win. Fellow Dukie Adam Boucher pitched two innings, Yale’s Clark Klitenic pitched the eighth inning and Drew Mead threw in the ninth.
The Sharks were scheduled to play in Holyoke against the Valley Blue Sox on Friday night and return to the Tank on Sunday for a 6 pm start against the Mystic Schooners. The teams will first complete a contest suspended from June 4, with the Sharks ahead, 3-0, in the seventh inning before proceeding to the scheduled game.
