Written by Corey Coye
Liar, liar, bats on fire! The Bees offense was the story in an 8-4 victory over the Nashua Silver Knights in New Britain Thursday evening. The advantage on the scoreboard came courtesy of an 12-hit performance from tonight’s lineup, led by George Slauson (UConn/Plymouth, MA), who smacked three doubles and a single on the night and drove in three runs.
The Bees would get the party started early, though the first two baserunners wouldn’t even make contact. Owen Rich (Binghamton/Wallingford, CT) would lead off the game by drawing a walk from Nashua’s Ty Lohsen, while Tyler Garbooshian (Rutgers/Brick, NJ) would step up to the plate and get hit by a pitch. Two batters later Slauson would line the first of his three doubles in his first plate appearance, bringing Rich home. Davis Hanson’s (Georgetown/Winston-Salem, NC) ensuing single brought Slauson home from scoring position, and the game’s first frame would end squarely in New Britain’s favor by two runs. Starting pitcher Robby Wunsch (UMass Boston/South Windsor, CT) would hold up his end of the deal as well, allowing only two hits in the first three innings.
Michael Crowley would step in to relieve Lohsen after just two innings pitched, and he wouldn’t get any chance to settle in. Ben Kuja (Brandeis/Madison, CT) would immediately line a base hit for a single, before Slauson would hit another RBI double deep to left center field, charging Crowley with a run just two batters into his outing. He would go on to retire the next three batters, but the damage was already done as the Bees would carry a 3-0 lead. Nashua would get one back in the top of the fourth, as an RBI double from Hudson Story would allow Caleb Vacchiano to score. There would be more hits to come for the Bees in the bottom of the inning, but they couldn’t make it count, leaving the bases loaded by the end.
Nashua would cut into the Bees lead again in the fifth, this time making it 3-2. With the Bees up to bat, they left nothing to chance in the bottom of the fifth. New Britain would load the bases with no outs, requiring reliever Brody Bump to come in for Crowley. Thrown into the fire, Bump would give up two hits and two RBI sacrifice flies to put Nashua in a 4-run hole late on. New Britain would tack on two more insurance runs to see this one out, with Slauson involved in both. Slauson would get on base with a double in the sixth, before coming home on Deacon Brown’s (St. John’s/Williamsport, PA) second base hit of the night. In the bottom of the seventh, Slauson sent his fourth and final hit of the night to center field, resulting in an RBI single that drove in Garbooshian. Nashua would scrape two runs back in the top of the seventh but it wouldn’t be enough as New Britain would close out an 8-4 victory.
The win pushes the Bees to 23-17 as they tighten their grip on second place in the standings. New Britain will host the Lowell Spinners in the next round of FCBL action on Friday, July 18th.