By Connor Wilson

NEW BRITAIN, CT -  Playing against the Starfires for the first time in over a month, the New Britain Bees split a doubleheader with Westfield on Wednesday at New Britain Stadium.

Game 1

The Bees were victorious in the first game of the doubleheader and defeated the Starfires 3-2 in seven innings to make it seven consecutive wins.

James Lordi (Penn State/Albrightsville, PA) got the ball for New Britain and picked up the win throwing four innings allowing just two runs while striking out five.

After a scoreless first, the Bees got on the board in the bottom of the second after a walk from Christian Scanlon (Merrimack/West Haven, CT) and a double from CJ Brito-Trinidad (Bowdoin/South Kent, CT) put runners on second and third and Payten Wawruck (Fairfield/Amston, CT) hit a sacrifice fly to make it 1-0.

Lordi’s only blemish was in the third as Westfield rallied for two runs to take the lead, but he followed that up with a scoreless fourth.

The Bees didn’t wait long to retake the lead as in the third as Jimmy Keenan (St. John’s/White Plains, NY) blasted a two-run home run over the left field wall scoring Tyler Pettorini (Ohio State/Wooster, OH) to make it 3-2.

Keenan’s longball increased his team lead in home runs with his fifth of the season, which puts him tied for second in the Futures League.

Ryan Oshinskie (Brown/Fairfield, CT) pitched two perfect innings in relief with two strikeouts and Brian Hart (Hofstra/Rosedale, NY) threw a scoreless seventh to notch his third save of the season.

Game 2

The Bees fell in the nightcap against the Starfires by a score of 3-2.

Esteban Rivera III (Franklin Pierce/Hamden, CT) got the ball in game two for New Britain and had a solid outing despite picking up the loss going four innings allowing two runs (one earned), five hits, and he struck out six Westfield hitters.

The Starfires scored a run in the first, fourth, and fifth to jump out to a 3-0 lead.

The Bees offense started off quietly with no runs until the bottom of the fifth inning when a groundout from Tanner Santos (Babson College/Bethany, CT) scored Billy Mrowka (Skyline College/Duxbury, MA) to make it 3-1.

New Britain continued to chip away in the sixth as they scored a run on a fielder’s choice from Aidan Cohall (St. John’s/Bronx, NY) made it a 3-2 game.

Chris Gibbs (Mitchell College/New Britain, CT) was very effective in relief for the Bees as he tossed two scoreless innings striking out three.

The Bees started a rally in the bottom of the seventh after Santos was hit by a pitch with one out. Freddy Forgione (SUNY Maritime/Ronkonkowa, NY) laced a single to left to make it runners on first and second, but failed to score and snapped their seven game winning streak.

The Bees hit the road for two straight games before returning to New Britain to take on the Worcester Bravehearts on Saturday in a doubleheader. First pitch of the first game is set for 4 p.m. and the second game starts approximately 30 minutes after the conclusion of the first.