Haverhill, MA (April 16, 2025) – The #8 Northern Essex Community College baseball team used an eighth inning and strong relief pitching to get past CCRI on Wednesday night by a 7-5 final score in the opening game of key three game series. The win marked 13 straight for the Knights and improved their record to 17-7 and 6-0 in region play.

Trailing 5-3 heading into the bottom of the eighth, NECC plated four runs as the first two batters of the inning walked and an infield single off the bat of Mark McKay (Plymouth) loaded the bases with no outs. Jake Yngber (Miami, FL) was hit by a pitch to plate the first run, then Jaren Megan (Fairhaven) drew a walk and in the process a pair of runs scored on wild pitched during his at-bat. Yngber recorded the final run of the inning on a sacrifice fly from Jacob Carter (Reading).

Trailing 5-0 heading into the bottom of the fifth, the Knights plated three runs on back to back triples to start the inning from Yngber and Brooks Keefe (Marblehead) which was followed by a deep home run over the left field fence from Anthony Marino (Lynn).

The Knights bullpen was able to provide 7.1 innings of two hit, one run relief to let the bats rally. Eric Bridges (Saugus) tossed 5.1 innings striking out four, while Larsen Burch (Painting Post, NY) shut down CCRI over the final two innings with two strikeouts. Mike Geissler (Peabody) started and went 1.2 innings allowing four runs on three hits, walking four and striking out two..

The Knights will head to Rhode Island on Saturday for a double header with the CCRI to conclude the three-game series. First pitched scheduled for 12:00pm in Warwick.