Scanlon Leads Bees To Blowout Win Over Norwich 12-3

By Connor Wilson

(NEW BRITAIN, CT) - Playing in front of a crowd of kids from local New Britain area schools, the Bees defeated the Sea Unicorns 12-3 on Wednesday morning in the first game of a four game home stand at New Britain Stadium.

The Bees got a jolt offensively thanks to a career day at the plate Christian Scanlon (Merrimack/West Haven, CT), as the outfielder went 4-4 with a home run and six RBIs

Norwich got on the board in the first inning, scoring a run thanks to a pair of New Britain errors in the infield. Bees starter Matt Lauria (Western New England/East Haddam, CT) limited the damage to just one as he got out of the inning. 

After going scoreless in the first, the Bees took the lead in the second on a pair of RBI singles from Scanlon and Jamie Palmese (East Tennessee St./Berlin, CT) and added three more in the third when Scanlon belted a three-run shot over the wall in right.

The Sea Unicorns rallied for two runs in the top of the fifth, knocking out Lauria. The right hander ended up going 4.2 IP allowing three runs (two earned), six hits, two walks, and he struck out one.

Billy Mrowka (Skyline College/Duxbury, MA) lined a one out single to left in the fifth and Scanlon tallied his fifth RBI as he drove him home with a double to make the score 6-3.

The Bees broke the game open in the bottom of the seventh, as Scanlon and Tanner Santos (Babson College/Bethany, CT) each had RBI singles to make it 8-3 and a few batters later Jimmy Keenan (St. John’s/White Plains, NY) crushed an opposite field grand slam to right to make it 12-3.

New Britain’s bullpen was very sharp finishing out the game, as Chris Gibbs (Mitchell College/New Britain, CT), Jason Johnson (St. Joseph’s ME/Thomaston, CT), and Garret Garbinski (Manhattan College/Clinton, CT) combined for 4.1 IP and no runs.

Outside of Scanlon’s big game and Keenan’s grand slam, Mrowka went 2-4 with three runs scored and Santos also had a multi-hit game. Freddy Forgione (SUNY Maritime/Ronkonkoma, NY) reached base twice and scored two runs.

It’s a quick turnaround for the Bees as they are back in action tomorrow night at New Britain Stadium to play host to the Nashua Silver Knights at 6:35 p.m.