Gallagher's Heroics Pave Way to Walk-off Win
July 26, 2023 - New England Collegiate Baseball League (NECBL)
Sanford Mainers News Release
Sanford Mainers' Chris Gallagher on the mound
(Sanford Mainers)
SANFORD, Maine - Baseball can be weird at times.
One night after the rain washed away both ends of a doubleheader, fate turned the page for the Sanford Mainers as they defeated the Vermont Mountaineers 3-2 despite a three-hit night from a dormant offense.
Even though the final box score shows a quiet night for the green and yellow offense, the Mainers got the first two tallies of the ballgame right out of the gate.
Matt Polk (Vanderbilt) reached base on an error by Jack Renwick (Wofford) with one out in the bottom of the first inning. The next batter, Nick Roselli (Binghamton), tore the cover off the ball with a triple to the right-center field gap to bring home Polk and put the home team ahead 1-0.
Sanford did not stop there as Logan Poteet (Vanderbilt) served a ball into the outfield that was caught but proved deep enough to score Roselli on the sacrifice fly.
Nate Stocum (Western Carolina) started a rally for the Mountaineers the next half-inning with a one-out single. Stocum was followed to first base by Andre Martinez (Charleston), who worked a base on balls during the next plate appearance.
After Cody Bowker (Georgetown) showed off his two-way versatility as he fielded a pop-up in front of the plate for out number two, Jace Jeremiah (St. John's) single to center field to bring home Stocum and cut the deficit to one.
Bowker finished the top of the second by stranding two Mountaineers on base and did that again in the third inning after allowing a single to Santino Rosso (Hofstra) and hitting George Rosales (Fairleigh Dickinson) with a pitch.
Chris Gallagher (Wright State) replaced Bowker on the hill in the top of the fourth and promptly worked a 1-2-3 inning. Gallagher could not find that same success in the fifth, however, as Vermont tied the game at two apiece.
Two of the first three visitors to come to the plate in the fifth got out, but the one that did not, Marshall Toole (Wofford), came around to score as Rosales and Aaron Whitley (Rochester) went back-to-back with two-out singles.
Following the tying base hit off the bat of his college teammate, Nolan Sparks (Rochester) pitched a 1-2-3 inning in the fifth inning, which capped off his night. Sparks went five innings and allowed one hit and two unearned runs while striking out six.
While that 1-2-3 frame capped off Sparks' night, it did not cap off the success of the Vermont pitching staff as Tyler Cox (Dartmouth) continued the 1-2-3 trend through the eighth inning. Cox retired the first 10 hitters he faced after Sparks retired the final six he saw following a hit-by-pitch of Poteet that opened the fourth.
Gallagher matched the efforts of Vermont with two quick innings of his own after his struggles in the fifth, but the sidearm thrower found himself in a tough spot with two away in the eighth.
After getting Rosales and Whiley out without a hiccup to open the visitor's portion of the penultimate frame, Stocum tripled to right-center field to put the go-ahead runner on base.
With Stocum 90 feet away, Martinez and Connor Bertsch (Dartmouth) took 90-foot walks to first base due to a hit-by-pitch and walk respectively. That gave way to Jeremiah stepping to the plate with the bases loaded.
Gallagher worked ahead of the nine-hole hitter 0-2 and then painted the outside corner with a strike that froze Jeremiah for out number three.
The bottom of the eight and top of the ninth came and went as Cox and Gallagher, who was in his sixth inning out of the bullpen, each kept things economical by throwing less than 10 pitches and registering nothing but outs.
That paved the way for the struggling Moose offense to walk-off Vermont just four days removed from a Jack Toomey (Holy Cross) walk-off sacrifice fly against the same Mountaineers team.
Cox recorded the 16th straight out for the Mountaineers pitching staff by way of a Polk flyout before Roselli singled to record not only his second hit of the night, but also the team's second hit of the night.
Devin Russell (Maryland) and Jeremiah Jenkins (Maine) each got free passes, Russell by way of a hit-by-pitch and Jenkins by way four balls, to load the bases for Devan Bade (Binghamton).
Bade took the first two pitches before he drove the third offering from Cox on a line into center field to drive home his college teammate in Roselli and give the Mainers their fifth walk-off win of the season.
The Moose are back in action tomorrow as they head to Upper Valley to face the Nighthawks in a doubleheader. Sanford serves as the home team in the first seven-inning affair beginning at 3:30 p.m. before swapping to the away team for the nightcap.
Images from this story
 Sanford Mainers' Chris Gallagher on the mound |
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