The Norwich Sea Unicorns fell to the Nashua Silver Knights 5-1 on Sunday. Norwich’s Sunday defeat returns the Sea Unicorns to 2nd in the Futures League standings holding a record of 17-12 through 29 ballgames.
There was no scoring until the home 4th when Nashua jumped out to a 3-0 lead. Norwich threatened in the top of the 3rd inning against Nashua starter Andrew Chenevert, but the right-hander was able to escape the bases loaded jam unscathed. Bo Yaworski began the frame with a bunt single and Garrett Larsen and Trey Porter followed with singles of their own to load the bases with no outs. Chenevert was able to battle his way through the inning, retiring the next three Sea Unicorns to keep the game scoreless.
After escaping the bases loaded threat, Nashua cracked through in the 4th capitalizing on a series of errors committed by the Norwich defense. Nashua began the inning with a pair of singles and had runners at 1st and 2nd with no outs. Tommy Ahlers, who began the inning with a base hit, later stole 3rd and came home to score on error committed by the Sea Unicorns second baseman. The Silver Knights reloaded the bases after the Norwich shortstop committed the 2nd consecutive error of the inning. Nashua extended their lead to 2 on a wild pitch by Norwich starter Justin Marks. Command trouble continued for Marks throughout the inning as he issued a walk and fired a 2nd wild pitch to help the host build a 3-0 lead.
Norwich plated their lone run in the 5th to cut the Nashua lead to 2. Unfortunately, that would be the closest Norwich would come. Nick Tomasetto’s 14th RBI of the summer to bring home Garrett Larsen would be all the offense for Norwich. As a team, the Sea Unicorns finished with 7 hits on the night and just 1 extra base hit. AJ Soldra extended his hitting streak to 12 games thanks to his 1st inning double. Garrett Larsen also shined offensively for Norwich with his 3rd straight multi-hit performance and reached safely on 3 of his 5 trips to the plate.
The Silver Knights restored their 3-run lead in the 6th and added another in the 7th to take a commanding 5-1 lead. River Hart clobbered his league leading 6th home run of the summer in the bottom of the 6th and the Silver Knights added some more insurance in the 7th, capitalizing on an error committed by the Sea Unicorns reliever with 2 outs. As a team Norwich finished the night with 4 errors to match a season high for errors committed in a game. Of the 4 errors committed by the Norwich defense, 2 of the 5 runs scored by Nashua were unearned.
Nashua starter Andrew Chenevert earned the victory (4-0) tossing 5 innings of 1-run baseball while allowing 6 hits and 2 walks. The bullpen for Nashua was dominant, shutting out the Sea Unicorns offense the rest of the way, and held Norwich to just 1 hit in the final 4 innings.
Norwich returns to action on Tuesday with a meeting against the Brockton Rox. First pitch is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. EST from Campanelli Stadium.