Sea Unicorns Season Ends With Semifinal Round Loss To New Britain

New Britain, CT – The Chase 4 Glory has officially come to an end for the Norwich Sea Unicorns, as the New Britain Bees defeat the Rose City 4-2.

Michael Zalinkanskas had a strong start on the mound for Norwich after pitching in relief earlier in the series. The right hander threw three scoreless innings with four hits and three strikeouts to two walks. 

The Bees had the first scoring opportunity of the ballgame in the bottom of the second. Dylan Swarts led the inning off with a single, followed by Vincent Lombardo and Ben Kuja reaching base on singles of their own to load the bases. However, a passed ball would be recovered nicely by JP Kuczik, who rushed back to home plate to get Swarts out trying to score. Zalinkanskas would then force two groundouts to escape the jam unscathed.

Both teams were able to get runners on first and second in the third inning, but neither came close to driving in a run.

The Sea Unicorns would finally strike first in the fourth inning. After two quick outs, CJ Nolan walked before advancing to second on a wild pitch and then stole third base. Matt Park would then rock an RBI double, followed by a Jake Howlett RBI single during the next at-bat to make it 2-0 Norwich. 

New Britain would form a quick response. In the home half of the fourth, Kuja reached base safely on a double before scoring on a Grady Schopps RBI double. 

The Bees would go out and make some noise in the fifth, knocking around Matt Tabet in relief. Michael Olender and Tim Hennig hit back-to-back singles to start, before both advancing into scoring position on a balk. With two outs, Lombardo rocketed a two-RBI double to right center, giving New Britain the 3-2 lead. 

After a quiet sixth inning from both sides, Bees reliever Thomas Harding struck out the side in the seventh. Harding ended up being just what the Hardware City needed in an elimination game, pitching five hitless innings in relief with six strikeouts to one walk. 

In the bottom half of the seventh, the Bees tacked on some insurance. Tyler Garbooshian knocked an RBI single to make it 4-2 New Britain, scoring Olender. 

That would be the last of either offense, although New Britain came close to scoring in the eighth but Kuja got caught in a rundown between third base and home. 

The Bees hung on without much resistance to victory and advanced themselves to their second straight Futures League Championship series. Meanwhile, your Sea Unicorns head home and will look to build upon an impressive second half to their 2026 season in 2027. 

Now that the team is eliminated from the postseason, the Sea Unicorns season has come to a close. Although the team missed out on adding another to their championship streak, the squad had a lot to be proud of. 

As always, thank you to the loyal Norwich fan base for supporting the boys at Dodd Stadium and to all the Sea Unicorn fans for showing love to the team from all over the globe! More to come when the Sea Unicorns return next summer to the Rose City.

Win – Thomas Harding (1-0)

Loss – Matt Tabet (0-1)

Time – 2:18

Written by Mark Benway