Keene SwampBats survive first battle on the Road

Jun. 11—MYSTIC, Conn. — The SwampBats won a close game on the road against the Mystic Schooners, 3-2, Friday night in Mystic, Conn.

It was close throughout, but the SwampBats had timely hitting and some new faces shined bright in the big moment.

Noah Lewis got the start for the SwampBats, his second appearance of the season and first start of the summer. Lewis faired well against a great Schooners lineup who proved to be stubborn. Lewis lasted four strong innings racking up four punch outs in the process. Lewis left the game allowing just two runs, only one of them earned.

The SwampBats offense took no time picking up where they left off from their 19 run performance just a night ago. Tony Santa Maria was one of two Scarlet Knights who played a large factor in this game. He singled to start the game and would eventually score on a Dan Convino RBI double. However, the SwampBats stranded the bases loaded in the first inning and the offense finally came back down to earth. Garret French picked Lewis up nicely, shoving two innings of scoreless baseball along with four strikeouts of his own.

Pick up in the fifth inning, the top of the order continued to shine. After yet another Santa Maria single and stolen bag, Covino cashed him in one more time to tie the game up at two. Both Santa Maria and Covino combined for three hits, two RBI, and two runs scored. Later in the sixth, Colin Watterau delivered the go-ahead hit getting just enough of the ball, lining it into left center field. The SwampBats took a 3-2 lead and their offense was held in check from there.

Lucky enough for the SwampBats, their pitching shined once again. It wasn't easy to follow up Lewis and French's performance, but Greyson Carter and Parker Murphy took up the task. Greyson tossed two scoreless innings in relief getting in and out of trouble both times. The eighth inning had the runners on second and third and nobody out. Greyson struck out a batter, got another to ground into the infield, and struck out one more to retire the side unharmed. Murphy came on for the ninth to slam the door for his first save of the summer. Murphy ran into trouble but got some help from Watterau behind the dish as he threw out the tying run at third base on a steal attempt.

SwampBats Head Coach Shaun McKenna shared a couple words after the game: "A very well played good, thats a great team, and we are also an excellent team. All of our guys pitched really well tonight, we are very happy with what we saw from a lot of our guys tonight."

They now advance to a league-best 3-0 and will be back at Alumni Field Saturday night to host the Bristol Blues at 6:30 p.m. You can listen on Pure Oldies 104.1 FM, or watch it live on NECBLnetwork.com.

Chris Detwiler can be reached at 352-1234, extension 1411, or cdetwiler@keenesentinel.com. Follow him on Twitter @Chris_Detwiler.