Ellisen, Bats Run Wild Against 'Cats
July 18, 2024 - New England Collegiate Baseball League (NECBL)
Sanford Mainers News Release
Sanford Mainers' Tommy Ellisen on the mound
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NORTH ADAMS, Mass. - At Joe Wolfe Field for the second time this season, the Sanford Mainers used a similar recipe as their first time there, the Fourth of July, as they rallied in the latter third of the game to back up Thomas Ellisen (UConn) in a 10-4 win over the North Adams SteepleCats on Thursday.
Unlike that last matchup between the two sides, Sanford got on the board early behind runs in each of the first two frames.
In the first, Caleb Shpur (UConn) found his way on base via a walk before an error on a fielder's choice allowed him to get to second. With him on second base and C.J, Willis (Quinnipiac) leading off first, the two took off on a double steal.
Shpur slid in safely to third base as the throw from Brandon Gaer (UMass-Boston) skipped into the outfield. Sanford's right fielder sprung up from third base and sprinted home for Sanford's first run of the game.
"We picked good times to run tonight," manager Nic Lops said of his team, which stole 11 bases, pushing the pace on the basepaths. "Double-digits steals are going to help you in any ballgame. But one thing we've been preaching is energy and it certainly brings energy to your ball team when you're stealing free 90's."
Although it was not a stolen base, a couple of free 90s brought Mateo Hernandez (Austin Peay) around to score. Hernandez reached on a hit-by-pitch before a wild pitch advanced him to second base.
It was not long before Hernandez scored as Matt Miceli (Stony Brook) bounced a ball that got into left field on an error by Caden Dulin (Pittsburgh) at third base.
Working with the two-run lead, Ellisen worked a three up, three down inning in part due to a double play turned by Blake Schaaf (Georgetown) at second base. In his third inning of work, the right-handed pitcher ran into some trouble after quickly recording the first two outs of the inning including one on a strikeout.
Jake Kulikowski (Miami) kept the inning alive with a two-out walk leading to Elijah Lambros (Maryland) getting the chance to hit. Lambros, who had a multi-home run game against the Mainers in the first game of the season series, kept the inning alive once more with a single.
With two on base, Luke Mistone (Cal St. Fullerton) unleashed a no-doubt, three-run homerun over the left-field wall to give the SteepleCats a 3-2 advantage. The home team was not done though as Aedan Anderson (Xavier) walked and came around to score on an infield single that coincided with an error by Miceli.
Anderson came around to score for the fourth run of the ballgame and the inning against Ellisen. That sixth run of the third meeting between these two sides stood until the seventh when the Mainers got going against John Hacker (Marist).
Jared Davis (Virginia Tech) led off the inning with a single to left field before a stolen base put him into scoring position for Jackson Tucker (St. John's). Tucker, who was 5-for-37 since returning from an extended absence, delivered an RBI single that brought Davis around to score.
Tucker advanced to second base as Shpur worked his third walk of the game. Two batters later, Evin Sullivan (Binghamton) drove both Tucker and Shpur in on an opposite-field single. Sullivan's two-run single recorded his seventh and eighth RBI of the season in just his fifth game.
Sullivan returned to the field for the bottom of the seventh as the batterymate to Ellisen. Ellisen allowed a single in the seventh, but he recorded three outs against four batters as he completed his bounce-back effort in the game.
"Every time he takes the mound, we know we're going to get 100% effort," Lops said of the hard-throwing righty, who finished with 7 innings of 9 strikeout baseball. "We didn't get 100% execution tonight, but him battling back was a testament to how hard he works and how much trust he has in himself and his stuff."
Ellisen jogged off the mound at the end of the seventh inning with a one-run lead and by the time Jackson Walsh (Wheaton) entered for the eighth, Sanford had doubled the lead to two.
A leadoff walk worked by Schaaf was met with a two-out double by Shpur as the Mainers went ahead 6-4.
In the ninth, Sullivan created a run on his own as he reached on a walk, advanced to second on an error, stole third base and scored on a wild pitch.
His stolen base and the score on the wild pitch came in Miceli's fifth plate appearance of the night, which ended in a walk. Miceli was followed by Schaaf reaching on a hit-by-pitch before Davis reached on an infield single.
As Davis stepped on first base, the throw from Aedan Forde (New Haven) got past Mistone at first base allowing Miceli to score.
Both Schaaf and Davis scored as Tucker recorded his second run-scoring knock of the day and Shpur hit into a sacrifice fly.
"Today was the first time all summer that every single person in the lineup had at least two quality at-bats," Lops said of his offense that saw all nine starters reach base. "We like to praise it when everybody has at least one, but for everybody to have at least two is tremendous...That's the type of stuff we're going need at this point."
Walsh finished off Sanford's three victories in as many nights with a game-ending 5-4-3 double play started by Hernandez. The win was the Mainers' 18th of the season and pushed the Mainers one game over .500.
"They're really pulling together at the right time," Lops said of his team. "Typically, this is the time of year when you see different teams start to fall apart, lose guys and grow animosity towards each other. It's nice to see that we're only getting stronger day by day, one by one."
Sanford heads home for a two-game homestand prior to the 2024 NECBL All-Star Game. The homestand starts against the North Shore Navigators at 6:30 p.m. on Friday.
Images from this story
 Sanford Mainers' Tommy Ellisen on the mound |
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New England Collegiate Baseball League Stories from July 18, 2024
- Ellisen, Bats Run Wild Against 'Cats - Sanford Mainers
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