The Mariners escaped with a 5-3 win in Essex on Tuesday night over the Topsfield Tories. Ryan Marques picked up his first win of the season for the Mariners by going 5 solid innings and striking out 8. Dreesen was the tough luck loser for the Tories going 6 innings, striking out 4 and limiting the Mariners to only 8 hits, all 8 by the first four hitters in the lineup.
Jack Brancaleone pitched a perfect 6th inning for the Mariners and Mike Gibbon closed the door with a perfect 7th inning and recorded his 3rd save of the young season.
The Mariners were led by Joe Orlando's 3 hits, including a 2 run home run in the 2nd inning, and 2 runs scored. Rory Gentile and Nate Bertolino recorded 2 hits each, and Ian Buckley provided a 2 run double in the first inning. Ben Hathaway led the Tories with 2 hits on the night, and Bryan Green scored 2 of the Tories 3 runs. Lampik, Green, Gallugi, and Haines hit safely for the Tories. Hathaway made the defensive play of the night with a diving snag of Kyle Hildebrand's hard grounder up the middle, which started a 4-6-3 double play.
The 2 teams meet again on Friday night, 5:45, at Proctor Field in Topsfield. The Mariners improve to 4-2-1 with the win, while the Tories drop to 0-5 on the season.
