Jun. 15—The Gloucester baseball team had it’s game called due to rain in the top of the fourth inning on Monday afternoon against Winthrop. The Fishermen, however, got a little help from Salem to clinch at least a share of the Northeastern Conference North championship.
The Witches topped Danvers, 6-5 in extra innings on Monday to give the Falcons four NEC losses with one game remaining on Tuesday against Beverly. Gloucester has only three losses in conference play and can clinch the conference title outright with a win over Winthrop.
Gloucester and Winthrop will resume Monday’s game on Tuesday (time and location TBA) in the top of the fourth inning with the game tied, 1-1. The Fishermen will have runners on first and second with nobody out in the inning when play resumes.
The NEC North championship is Gloucester’s second in a row as the team won the North in the 2019 season as well before 2020 was wiped out due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“In a year where everyone was trying to find their footing, we were good enough on enough days to come out on top of the regular season,” Gloucester head coach Rory Gentile said. “That’s always a commendable feat in the NEC and something that historically is rare at GHS. I’m proud of the team and the assistant coaches.”
The Fishermen were originally scheduled to travel to Winthrop on Monday, but the weather saw the Vikings travel to Nate Ross Field in Gloucester instead as their home field was not playable on Monday afternoon. Winthrop was officially the home team and opened up the scoring in the bottom of the second when Camden Conway doubled off the base of the left field fence scoring a run from second.
Gloucester made it 1-1 in the next half inning when Jack Costanzo and Zach Oliver each singled with two outs and Costanzo later came in to score on a wild pitch.
In the top of the fourth, Gloucester got a leadoff single from Zach Abbott and then put another runner on base on a fielder’s choice as Abbott beat the throw to second on a Joseph Orlando nubber in front of the plate. The game was then halted due to rain.