On Monday afternoon, the baseball team improved to 9-1 on the season with a 9-1 victory over Bridgehampton on Jeff Adams Field.

Chris Nell was on the bump for the Bears and struck out six batters over the first two innings before a seven-run bottom of the 2nd gave The Brook control of the game.

The surge began with an E1 error that plated the first run, followed by an RBI single from Alex Baaden that gave the Bears a 2-0 lead. An error by the Killer Bees’ first baseman plated a third run before a passed ball plated Aiden Ruiz for a 4-0 margin. An RBI single from Larry Hotaling III and a sacrifice bunt by Seth Laureano pushed across two more runs and another passed ball brought in Jordan Serrano for the final run of the inning.

Nell continued to dominate in the 3rd by retiring the side in order to increase his consecutive outs total to eight. The Bears tacked on two more runs in the bottom half on a two-run double by Ruiz that scored Mateo Lopez (single) and Baaden (walk).

Nell worked around a one-out walk in the 4th to keep the Bees off the board, then struck out three in the 5th to retire 14 of the final 16 batters he faced. The Bees finally lit up their side of the scoreboard in the 6th, recording their only hit of the day with a one-out double as the Bears narrowly missed tossing the 13th no-hitter in team history.

Nell was brilliant on the mound in earning the victory, allowing no hits or runs and 3 walks while firing 12 strikeouts over 5.0 innings. Ruiz (1H, 2 RBI), Hotaling III (2H, 1 RBI), and Baaden (1H, 1 RBI) led the way at the plate.

The Bears are back on the diamond this afternoon when they host three-time reigning PSAA Champion Long Island Lutheran on Jeff Adams Field.

---