Written by Jimmy Brzozowy
NEW BRITAIN, CT – The New Britain Bees returned home after a quick and successful road trip where they knocked off the Westfield Starfires and Norwich Sea Unicorns, 7-5 and 2-1 respectively. The wins pushed their record to an impressive, league-best 9-3 mark and left just one team in the Futures League that had yet to be stung in 2026.
The Worcester Bravehearts entered New Britain Stadium with a 6-6 record coming off of back-to-back losses. Looking to remain undefeated against the Bees, Worcester would face Robby Wunsch (UMass Boston, South Windsor, CT) who entered with a 1.08 ERA through 8.1 innings pitched and would send Erik Swenson to the bump who had pitched three scoreless innings in two appearances for the Bravehearts.
However, for the third time in four games, the Bees found themselves trailing before a pitch was thrown in the second inning. A Gill Dolan single and Will Kraemer walk set up Tate Bannish to drive in the first run of the game with a single to right field. Two pitches later, Cole Travers lined one sharply to center that would hang up enough for the second run to score on the sacrifice fly.
Swenson exited the game after three shutdown innings that only saw three baserunners reach, all via the walk. Swenson turned the ball to Gavin Price, who delivered one clean inning before he gave up the first Bees hit with one out in the 5th inning to Danny Rogers (Salve Regina, New Canaan, CT), who was making his Futures League debut. He was stranded on second base.
Following his rocky first inning, where he allowed four runners to reach safely and two to score, Wunsch retired 12 of the next 14 batters he faced across four scoreless innings. Despite his season-high being 4.1 innings against Nashua, Wunsch trotted out for his 6th inning of work trailing by two runs.
After striking out Bannish to start the inning, Travers singled, Alan Carpenter walked, and an error by first baseman Rafael Rodriguez Rosa (Franklin Pierce/Meriden, CT) pushed the third run to score, unearned, against Wunsch. Worcester would score again on a wild pitch by Owen Pike (CCSU/Berlin,CT).
New Britain scored 11 runs in their home opener against the Lowell Spinners, and in their next three home games, only pushed across 10 runs, finishing 1-2 in those games. Despite being 7-1 on the road, the Bees have struggled in New Britain, none as bad as Thursday. The Bees host eight games at home in the next nine days, so there is plenty of opportunity for the bats to wake up in Hard Hittin’.
Worcester loaded the bases in the ninth before recording an out. Gabe Malaret and Travers gave the Bravehearts any insurance necessary by adding two sacrifice flies to their offensive lines. New Britain was retired in order in the ninth, and were struck out for the 11th and 12th time. They finished the contest with just two hits.
New Britain will host the Vermont Lake Monsters at New Britain Stadium at 6:35 PM ET on Friday, both suqads looking to be the first team with double digit wins on the season in the Futures League.