Honeycutt's Gem Propels Mainers to Fifth Straight
July 20, 2023 - New England Collegiate Baseball League (NECBL)
Sanford Mainers News Release
WHITE RIVER JUNCTION, V.T. - It has been the story of the winning streak for the Sanford Mainers, stout pitching and heavy hitting.
On Thursday evening, Justin Honeycutt (UNC Asheville) delivered the gem while 13 hits equated to five runs for the Mainers offense in a shutout victory over Upper Valley.
Of those 13 hits for the green and yellow, three of them came to open the top of the second. Logan Poteet (Vanderbilt), Nick Roselli (Binghamton) and Eddie Eisert (Virginia Tech) went back-to-back-to-back with singles.
Eisert's single allowed Poteet to slide in safely to home plate for the early 1-0 lead for the Moose. Brendan Walker (Stetson) got out of the inning by stranding the bases loaded after Levi McAllister (Albany) recorded the fourth hit of the inning for the Mainers.
Two innings later, Matt Polk (Vanderbilt) tied his Commodores teammate in terms of RBIs on the day as he unleashed a solo home run that stayed just fair down the left field line. That solo blast was the first of the season for the second-year Mainer and doubled the Mainers lead to 2-0.
The game went silent for a while as Honeycutt and Walker settled into rhythms, but in the seventh, an inning after Walker was replaced in favor of Evan Byers (Kentucky), Sanford got going again.
Kevin Skagerlind (UMass Amherst) led off the visitors' portion with a base-on-balls two-ats before a double by Polk set up two runners on base with just one out.
In what has become an everyday occurrence for the Mainers, Poteet racked up another base hit, which drove in Skagerlind and Polk to give his squad a 4-0 lead.
Three batters later, one of which reached base in Roselli with his third hit of the game, Cam Johnson (UNC Asheville) brought home Poteet as the final blow of the game for Sanford's offense.
A half-inning later, Honeycutt struggled to get outs after his leadoff strikeout out of Nick Monistere (Southern Mississippi). The lefty on the bump yielded a single to Matthew Russo (Southern Mississippi), a walk to Marco Ali (Marist) and another single to Dylan Palmer (Hofstra), which loaded the bases.
Facing the top of the order, Honeycutt forced a flyout out of Adarius Myers (Louisiana Tech) and a groundout of Tyler Long (Mount St. Mary's) to end the threat. That was also the end of the line for Honeycutt, who went seven-shutout innings of six-hit, five strikeout baseball in which he stranded eight Nighthawks on base.
Michael Simes (UMass Lowell) and Chris Gallagher (Wright State) each threw a scoreless inning to cap off the Mainers fifth straight win.
Sanford returns to Goodall Park tomorrow to play two games against the North Adams Steeplecats. Game one is a continuation of a game that was suspended with the SteepleCats leading 3-1 after one inning of play on the Fourth of July. Game two begins about 30 minutes later and is only seven innings.
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