Mariners Top Townies

In a rematch of a 2008 playoff semi-final series the Manchester-Essex Mariners defeated the Rockport Townies 4-0 on Sunday night at Evans Field. Mike Gibbon led the way for the Mariners on the mound picking up the victory with the complete game shutout effort. Gibbon scattered 4 hits, while striking out 8 and only walking 1. Rockport pitchers Cory Emerson and Andrew Vassallo combined to hold the Mariners to only 4 hits, but 11 walks and 2 errors came back to haunt the Townies as the Mariners scored 3 runs in the 5th inning and 1 more in the 6th inning.

The 4 lone hits for the Mariners were from Mike Cain (rbi,r, 2b, bb), Whit Graham, Ian Buckley (rbi, bb), and Bryan Lafata (bb, r, 2sb). Leadoff hitter, Rory Gentile paced the Mariners with 4 bases on balls and scored 2 of the Mariners 4 runs. 3 of the 4 Townies hits were doubles from Brent Currier, Dan Greel, and Eric Junker. Chris Bouchie had the other hit for the Townies and also recorded a stolen base.

The Mariners go to 2-0 on the young season, while the Townies drop to 1-2. The two teams meet again on Tuesday night (6/2) at 5:45 at Memorial Park in Essex. Following that the Mariners host Beverly on Wed 6/3 and Sunday 6/7 at Essex (Sunday's game is Beverly's home game in Essex), and Rockport has a 2 game series with undefeated Rowley (Sun 6/7 in Rockport and Wed 6/10 at Eiras Park in Rowley).