Swamp Bats complete NECBL Championship Series sweep of Muskrats with 7-1 triumph
- Mayberry strikes out a season high 11 batters on six innings pitched
LACONIA NH – Right-handed pitcher Whit Mayberry (Alexandria, VA/Virginia) struck out a season-high 11 batters over six innings of work and Brett DeLoach (Blackshear, GA/Georgia) launched two homers to lead Keene to its third New England Collegiate Baseball League (NECBL) championship in franchise history with a 7-1 victory over Laconia in game two of the NECBL Championship Series on Wednesday night at Robbie Mills Park.
The Swamp Bats end an eight-year drought having won its last NECBL Title in 2003 over the Torrington Twisters. Keene also defeated the Rhode Island Gulls in 2000 starting a string of four consecutive appearances in the NECBL Championship ending in 2003. The Swamp Bats are now 3-2 in the NECBL Championship Series losing to Newport in back-to-back seasons in 2001 and 2002.
Mayberry earned his second win of the postseason on six innings of work, yielding one run (earned), on four hits, no walks and 11 punchouts. The right-hander fanned at least one batter in every inning and struck out the side in the fifth after giving up a leadoff home run to Kevin Mortimer (Spencer, MA/Trinity).
Mayberry surpasses teammates Jeff Thompson (Greenville, IN/Louisville) and Taylor Williams (Camas, WA/Washington St.) for the single-game high this season as both pitchers were tied at 10 strikeouts. Thompson recorded the feat twice once in the regular season and the other against Holyoke in game three of the Western Division Championship Series.
Chris Costantino (Lincoln, RI/Walters St. CC) suffered the loss on five innings pitched, four runs (all earned), five hits, two walks and eight punchouts.
Eddie Medina (Staten Island, NY/St. John’s) pitched the final three innings of the contest, all scoreless, to record his third save in the NECBL Playoffs.
DeLoach opened the scoring for the Swamp Bats in the second lifting a full-count curveball over the left field fence off of Costantino for a 1-0 lead.
After Colby May (Guyton, GA/Georgia) and Esteban Gomez (Brooklyn, NY/San Jacinto) notched back-to-back singles from and Brett Barrett (Keene, NH/Southern Maine) drew an eight pitch walk, Costantino handed Keene a 2-0 advantage with a wild pitch to the backstop.
Costantino limited any further damage in the frame retiring Michael Burruss (Marietta, GA/Georgia Southern) on pop out in foul territory and Curt Powell (Knoxville, TN/Tennessee) on a strikeout swinging.
In the third, centerfielder Kevin Brown (Northborough, MA/Bryant) extended the Swamp Bats gap to 3-0 with a solo home run to right centerfield.
Gomez pushed Keene to a 4-0 lead in the fourth driving home May – who walked to leadoff the inning – with a triple down the right field line for his second hit on the night.
Laconia cut into the deficit in the bottom of the fifth inning, 4-1, as Mortimer launched a first pitch fastball offering from Mayberry over the centerfield wall immediately after a 45-minute rain delay.
The Swamp Bats put the game away in the seventh on a run-producing single from Brown and a two-run homer from DeLoach to make it 7-1. DeLoach ends this postseason with six home runs total hitting at least one longball in each of his last three games consecutively.
Gomez fell a home run shy of the cycle getting a single in the first inning, an RBI triple in the fourth and a double in the eighth. The left fielder finished the night going 4-for-4 at the plate with one run batted in pacing the Swamp Bats offense along with DeLoach who finished 2-for-4 with two runs scored, a pair of home runs and three runs batted in.
