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Mainers' Bats Cruise in 17-4 Victory Over Vermont

July 28, 2012 - New England Collegiate Baseball League (NECBL) Sanford Mainers

Coming off a day where the Sanford Mainers split a double header with the Mystic Schooners, while scoring sixteen runs in the first game, it raised the question on whether the Mainers offense could continue the hot hitting. Not only did they continue it, they put up one more than they did in yesterday's game one, scoring seventeen runs as part of a 17-4 victory over the Vermont Mountaineers.

The Mountaineers had already beaten the Mainers this season, 8-3 back in Montpelier in the first game of two for the season series. They got the game going when Rob Kelly took a pitch from Mainers starter Steven Rice with two outs in the first inning and sent it over the fence in left field, good enough for a solo home run.

The Mainers responded in the bottom half of the inning when Ino Patron came into score after leading off the Mainers part of the game with single. Jordan Betts sent a ball to left field deep enough for Patron to tag on the out recorded by John Mishu.

Vermont fought back again in the top half of the second, scoring again to take the lead when Brett Johnson lead off the inning with a double and then stole third. Two pitches later he crossed the plate when Ryan Karl grounded out to short.

Heading into the bottom of the second, the Mainers took the lead for the first time. Gavin Stark and Nate LaPointe reached base to start the inning on a single and a walk respectively. Cam Young pushed the two runners along on a sacrifice bunt, giving the Mainers two runners in scoring position with only one out. Patron who scored on a sacrifice fly an inning earlier, hit one himself scoring Stark and moving LaPointe on to third. Jordan Hagel stepped up to the plate with the game tied at two and grounded a ball to third base, but reached safely on an error by Johnson at third, allowing LaPointe to score.

Rice was able to get the Mountaineers in order for the first time in the game in the third inning and send his team back up to bat, this time to open up the lead.

Paul Kronenfeld got the inning started with a one out double and was joined on the bases by Jose Torralba who walked in the next at bat. Stark then hit a ball to right center field scoring both Kronenfeld and Torralba to put the Mainers ahead 5-2. LaPointe then singled up the middle allowing Stark to score from second. Patron collected his second hit of the game by putting a ball into center field, while LaPointe scored from second.

Heading into the bottom of the fifth and the Mainers leading 7-2, the Mountaineers tacked on one more run. Aaron Barbosa hit a two out single, stole second, and then stole third all in the same at bat. He came into score when Austin Greene lined down the left field line to bring the game to 7-3.

The Mainers grabbed one more run in the bottom of the fifth to push the lead to 8-3, but went to work again in the sixth inning. Hagel lead off with a single, advanced to second on a wild pitch, and then stole third. Hajjar got his first hit of the game, singling to center field scoring Hagel for a 9-3 lead. Betts walked and then Hajjar moved up to third when ball four was sent to the backstop. With runners at the corners and one out in the inning, Torralba singled into center field scoring Hajjar and moving Betts to third base.

Luke Crocker came into the game to relieve Walker Stadler who had entered the game earlier for Mountaineers starter, Andrew LeBlanc. The first pitch he threw to Stark was flown into right field deep enough to score Betts on yet another sacrifice fly.

With the Mainers leading 12-4 heading into the bottom of the eighth after the Mountaineers grabbed one more, as did the Mainers, the Moose scored five more times to blow the game way out of reach. The first three hitters reached base to start the inning. LaPointe hit a sacrifice fly to right scoring Kronenfeld. With the bases loaded for the second time in the inning on another single by Young, Patron lined a ball into right field scoring Stark. Hagel was retired for out number two, but Hajjar came to the plate and smacked a double to left-center field putting two more runs on the board to make the score 16-4. During the next at bat, Betts popped a pitch so far up in the air above home plate, the ball landed on the infield when newly entered catcher, Casey Brighton misjudged the ball. Due to the inning having two outs, Patron was already waiting at home plate by the time the ball landed, therefore scoring making the score 17-4.

The score stayed that way until the top of the ninth when the Mountaineers loaded the bases and plated one more, but no more runs reached as the Mainers defense finished off the game.

The Mainers improve to 14-22 on the season and gain a game on the division leading Newport Gulls. The Mainers will travel back to Fitch High School tomorrow night to take on the Mystic Schooners for the final game of their season series. First pitch is slated for 6:05pm.

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New England Collegiate Baseball League Stories from July 28, 2012


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