Sea Unicorns Win in Dominating Fashion
The Norwich Sea Unicorns bounced back against their in-state rivals, the New Britain Bees with a convincing 16-4 victory. The weekend home-and-home series was favorable to the road team winning in enemy territory.
It was a rocky start for Norwich surrendering 3 early runs in the first inning. Once again it was a couple defensive miscues that led to the early offensive surge for New Britain. A one-out error began the rally for the hosts. Freddy Forgione continued his success against Norwich driving in the first 2-runs on his 3rd double of the summer. The Bees would add on another to take a 3-0 lead after the 1st.
The Sea Unicorns quickly responded in the second with 3 of their own to bring the game back level. Anthony Tirado ignited the offense with a one-out single to left and quickly advanced into scoring position on his 4th stolen base of the summer. Norwich battled with a pair of outs in the inning to produce all 3 of their runs, starting with Aidan Baglino, who cracked a single into left to drive in Tirado and advance MD Conner, who was hit by a pitch earlier in the frame, to third. A wild pitch to James Marsden brought home the second run of the inning for Norwich to trim the New Britain lead to 1. Marsden came through later in his plate appearance with an RBI single into right to bring home Baglino.
Norwich took the lead in the 3rd thanks to some help from the New Britain defense. Alex Irizarry began the inning reaching on an error committed by the Bees first basemen and later advanced into scoring position on a wild pitch. Nick Tomasetto continued his strong start to the summer with an RBI single into left field to give Norwich a 4-3 lead. The Sea Unicorns extended their lead in the fifth and once again it was Alex Irizarry who began the danger with a base hit to center. The speedy Irizarry found his way into scoring position on a passed ball and on the following pitch stole 3rd. Tomasetto once again brough home Irizarry with a sacrifice fly to left.
The Bees were able to cut the Norwich lead to 1 with a run in the 6th, but that was the closest they would come. Norwich exploded in the 8th, striking for 11 runs to take a 16-4 lead. In the inning Norwich was walked 6 times and hit by Bees pitching twice. In addition to the surplus of free passes offered by New Britain pitching, Norwich also took advantage of a pair of wild pitches and an error committed by the host. Overall, in the inning Norwich sent 15 batters to the plate and didn’t record an out until the 7th batter of the inning. The 12 run lead for Norwich allowed the Sea Unicorns to close out the game after the 8th inning via the run rule.
Liam Carroll locked down the victory for Norwich striking out the side in the bottom of the 8th inning to secure Norwich their 5th victory of the season. Justin Marks earned the victory (1-0) after a rocky start working 5 innings and did not allow another run to cross the plate in his final 4 innings. Offensively, Nick Tomasetto and James Marsden had big nights, each having a multi-hit game. Tomasetto finished his night with 3 RBI’s and Marsden with 4.
The Sea Unicorns continue their road trip this afternoon with their first meeting of the season against the Brockton Rox. First pitch is scheduled for 1:30 EST.