By Michael Letendre

OAK BLUFFS, MA – The Bristol Blues had a tough hill to climb, trailing 1-0 against Martha’s Vineyard in a best-of-three New England Collegiate Baseball League semifinal round playoff showdown last Wednesday night.

After pulling off a 10-3 upset in Bristol the previous Tuesday, the Sharks needed just one win over their final two games to advance to the NECBL finals.

And from the friendly confines of the Shark Tank in Oak Bluffs, Massachusetts, Martha’s Vineyard made it a clean sweep against Bristol.

Notching the first five runs of the affair, the Sharks dropped the Bristol Blues by a 13-4 final – ending Bristol’s season with a tremendous 32-14 record overall.

The Sharks moved to 3-0 over postseason play and rode the arm of winning pitcher Jack Beauchesne to seize the victory against the Blues in Massachusetts.

The chucker came out of the bullpen to throw 3.1 innings of two hit, no run ball as he compiled three strikeouts to seize the win.

Bristol’s Colin McVeigh (2.2 IP, 3 ER, 3 BB) drew a tough loss and was one of seven pitchers the squad turned to that evening.

Bristol etched up seven hits over the contest as Matt Smith was 2-for-3 with a run scored while teammate Carson Swank smacked out a home run, went 2-for-5 overall with a run scored and three RBI.

Jay Harry (1-for-3), Ben Huber (1-for-3), and Billy Sullivan (1-for-3) all added hits for the Blues over the losing effort.

And for the second straight showdown against the Sharks, Bristol left a double-figure count of men on base.

But so did Martha’s Vineyard, although went it counted, the Sharks scored several big runs to end the Blues’ tremendous season.

Trailing by eight runs going into the fifth frame, Bristol’s Craig Corliss walked, Matt Smith singled to get onboard and with one swing of the bat, Swank slammed a ball out of the Shark Tank as the three-run shot trimmed the deficit to 8-3.

But the Sharks added five consecutive runs to seize a 13-3 edge before the Blues tallied one final run in the top of the ninth.

Bristol’s Jack Lynch was plunked by a pitch and later scored via an error as the visitors cut the lead to 13-4 before running out of gas late, falling by nine to call it a season.

In the end, the Blues did not win a game over postseason play, falling to the Sharks in semifinal play to close out an excellent regular season effort.

NOTES…Game two of the Blues/Sharks series saw nearly 2,700 fans take in the showdown from the Shark Tank…Martha’s Vineyard earned the right to compete for the Fay Vincent Cup, squaring off against the Vermont Mountaineers in a best-of-three series…Bristol ended up the West Division Champions, the Co-Regular season champs, and – in the process of a great campaign – tied the record for the most regular season victories in NECBL history. 

New England Collegiate Baseball League Playoffs – Semifinal Round, Game 2

MARTHA’S VINEYARD SHARKS 13, BRISTOL BLUES 4

from the Shark Tank

Bristol (0-2)                            000 030 001 – 4 7 0 

Martha’s Vineyard (3-0)      102 521 20x – 13 12 1   

WP – Jack Beauchesne (Martha’s Vineyard); LP – Colin McVeigh (Bristol)

Bristol Batting 

2B – None

3B – None

HR – Carson Swank

Martha’s Vineyard Batting 

2B – Thomas Bramley

3B – Ben Nardi

HR – Thomas Bramley, Michael Snyder 

LOB – Bristol 10; Martha’s Vineyard 10 

Records: Martha’s Vineyard 3-0 postseason, Bristol 0-2

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