NEW BRITAIN – The Bees opened up their 2026 campaign on Wednesday night at New Britain Stadium with a convincing 11-5 win over the Lowell Spinners, the newest team in the Futures League.

Garret Garbinski (UConn/Clinton, CT) got the ball for the Bees and looked like the ace he was last summer when he twirled a 0.59 ERA in 13 appearances and 11 starts. Garbinski got the win on Wednesday, going five innings and allowing just one earned run while striking out a pair of Spinner batters.

New Britain got on the board early in the bottom of the first after Brady Paul (Winthrop/Midlothian, VA) led off the game with a triple and James Fagnant (UConn Avery Point/East Granby, CT) drove him in with a groundout to first. The Bees would score again in the second on an RBI fielder’s choice from Myles Gythfeldt (Colby/Ridgefield, CT).

Garbinski surrendered his lone run in the third, but the Bees rallied for three an inning later in the bottom of the fourth headlined by a Gythfeldt RBI single, a Fagnant sac-fly, and a George Slauson (UConn/Plymouth, MA) RBI single.

After going scoreless in the fifth, the offense awoke again for New Britain as Kacin Robinson (Stonehill/East Hartford, CT) crushed a 2-run double to left and came around to score on a sac-fly from Jack Kane (St. Joseph’s/West Hartford, CT) to make the score 8-2 through six.

Lowell would rally in the eighth, plating a pair of runs to make things interesting at 8-4, but the Bees responded with a 2-run single from Robbie Lamond (Wheaton/North Kingstown, RI) to get those runs right back. It didn’t stop there, as Yammy Perez (Bryant/North Branford, CT) drove in a run with an RBI single to make it 11-4.

Tanner Wall (Western New England/Brookfield, CT), Isaac Cabral (Salve Regina/Lincoln, RI) and Braden Young (Wheaton/Foxborough, MA) combined to get the final 12 outs after Garbinski and finish off the 11-5 win. The Bees finished with 14 hits, four of which went for extra bases.

Notes:

  • Robinson and Paul’s three hit efforts marks the first two instances a Bees player has had at least that many hits in a home-opener since joining the Futures League (dating back to 2021).
  • Garbinski made his 12th career start in a Bees uniform and had now surrendered 2 runs or fewer in all 12, including 10 scoreless starts.
  • Eight players who played in Wednesday’s game were returning players to Hard Hittin’, including five of the nine players in the starting lineup.
  • The Bees snapped a two-game losing streak in home openers, not having won their inaugural contest at New Britain Stadium since 2023 against the Pittsfield Suns.

The Bees are back in action for an Education Day clash with the Norwich Sea Unicorns on Thursday morning. First pitch is slated for 10:35 AM in New Britain.