Knights defeat Alexandria, head to national semi-finals for first time since 2023

Johnson City, TN (May 25, 2026) – The Northern Essex Community College baseball team, seeded sixth in the NJCAA World Series, jumped out to 5-0 lead on Monday night as they defeated fourth seeded Alexandria Tech (MN) by a 12-7 final, and advance to the national semi-finals as they picked up win number 33 on the season.

David Castillo (Boston), the Region 21 Player of the Year stepped onto the mound away from his everyday shortstop position and pick up the win on the rubber as he tossed 4.1 innings, allowing four runs on three hits, before giving way to Dominic Pefine (North Andover) and Jayden Souza (Fall River) who closed out the win. Pefine tossed 2.2 allowing three runs on three hits, before Souza entered the game in the seventh with no outs and the bases loaded for Alexandria. Souza struck out the first batter he faced before inducing a pair of popups to get out of the jam holding onto the five-run lead.

After two scoreless innings, the Knights plated four runs with two outs in the third. Jaren Megan (Fairhaven) drew a one out walk and advanced to third on a single from Castillo. Megan would score on a passed ball and Castillo came across the plate with a single from Owen Derocher (Berkley). Jack Aylward (Lowell), plated Derocher, when he ripped a double off the left field wall and would score on a single back up the middle from Kade Masselli (New Gloucester, ME).

For Masselli, the RBI single was the first of his four hit, two RBI performance in the game.

Brooks Keefe (Marblehead) got hit by a pitch to lead off fourth and advanced to second on a sacrifice from Jesse Yngber (Miami, FL) before scoring on a two out line drive to right field from Castillo.

The fourth and fifth innings saw each team plate seven runs which would result in the final score for the game.

After Alexandria plated four runs in the top half of the fifth, NECC immediately responded with four runs of their own.

Derocher and Aylward both got hit by pitches to open the bottom of the fifth. With a 1-0 count on Masselli, executed a double steal and two pitches later a perfectly executed bunt scored Derocher and Aylward followed behind on a throwing error on the play. Megan would single to center that drove in both Masselli and Marbel Soriano (Boston) who reached on a walk.

The Knights would score the games final runs in the bottom of the sixth when Soriano ripped a three-run home run down the left field line.

With a 33-10 record, the Knights advance to the national semi-finals for the first time since 2023 where they earned a third-place finish. NECC will take on second seeded RCSJ Gloucester in the semi-finals on Tuesday at 1:15pm with the winner advancing to play on later Tuesday with a chance to advance to the national championship round.