Bees 5th Inning Sinks Sea Unicorns in Sunday Defeat
New Britain, CT – The Norwich Sea Unicorns were unable to overcome the Bees 5th inning in a 7-1 loss on Sunday afternoon. Sunday’s defeat effectively concludes a difficult month of June for the Sea Unicorns, who stumbled to a 9–16 record over the month. On the summer, Norwich owns a record of 11-17 overall entering the month of July.
The Bees broke the game open in the 5th erupting for 5 runs against Norwich starter DJ Peterson. A leadoff walk and a hit batsman to start the frame provided immediate traffic for the New Britain offense. A wild pitch from Peterson advanced both runners into scoring position. Carlos Irizarry produced the first run of the afternoon for the hosts on an infield single to first, however the Sea Unicorns caught a break and recorded the first out in the frame on the Bees attempt to score an additional run on the play, as the Norwich first baseman threw home to retire Chaz Wright who was breaking for the plate.
Later in the inning, a failed pickoff attempt from Peterson to 2nd spilled into centerfield allowing Irizarry to take 3rd. Dylan Mayer brought home Irizarry on a groundout to first. Back-to-back 2 out base hits from Noland Risedorf and Cam Righi continued the hosts threat in the frame. Julius Rosado delivered the big blow crushing a one out triple to the right center field gap to increase the Bees lead to 4. New Britain tacked on their final run of the inning thanks to the 2nd wild pitch of the stanza from the Norwich starter.
Norwich collected their only run of the afternoon in the 4th against Bees starter Carson Parrott. The Tennessee Tech product cruised early, retiring the first 10 batters he faced before Norwich collected their first hit of the afternoon. Caden Fahy cracked the first hit of the ballgame for the visitors followed by Chace Chaplin, who poked a single down the line in right before being thrown out trying to extend his single into extra bases. Ryan Thompson produced the lone run of the afternoon for Norwich on the third straight single of the inning to score Fahy from 3rd. Parrott retired the next batter he faced to minimize any further damage.
New Britain added two more runs in the 5th, capitalizing on a season-worst four errors by the Norwich defense to stretch the lead to 6.
The Bees bullpen limited the Norwich offense to 2 hits over the final 4 innings while striking out 7. In total, New Britain pitching racked up an impressive 13 strikeouts, nearly matching their season high of 14.
Win – Collin Blake (1-1)
Loss – DJ Peterson (1-2)
Time – 2:35
Norwich is back in action Tuesday night at New Britain Stadium, marking the eighth meeting of the summer between the two Connecticut foes. Landon Manzi (0–1) is slated to make his second start of the season for Norwich, while Jack Sheldon (0–0) will toe the rubber for the Bees in his second outing of the summer. First pitch is scheduled for 6:35 p.m.
Written by Adam Plager