Mainers Avoid Summer Blues in Split Doubleheader
June 29, 2024 - New England Collegiate Baseball League (NECBL)
Sanford Mainers News Release
Sanford Mainers' Cole Schiff on the mound
(, Credit: Madison Giltner Photography)
BRISTOL, Conn. - Wrapping up a three-day, four-game Connecticut trip as well as the first half of their season on Saturday, the Sanford Mainers split a doubleheader with the Bristol Blues at Muzzy Field.
Despite being the traveling squad, the Mainers served as the home team in game one allowing the Blues to hit first. Dean Ferrara (Fairfield) got the offense started with a one-out single off Clay Robbins (Southern Maine). Although Ferrara was erased on a 6-4-3 double play, he set the tone for a 13-hit outburst.
After Robbins escaped trouble in the second with two runners on base, Gavin Greger (Bryant) got the Blues going with a single to kick off the third inning. Greger advanced to second on a wild pitch and to third on a stolen base, allowing a groundout by Ferrara to score him.
The Blues, who had four hits going into the fourth inning, doubled their hit total with a four-hit performance in their fourth trip to the plate. Jason Shockley (Richmond) and Greger each delivered run-scoring singles, which brought home Skye Selinsky (Columbia) and Jordan Peyton (Towson), as Bristol's lead tripled.
An inning later, another four-hit frame propelled Bristol to two more runs, these two coming off Chris Gallagher (Purdue), who got the final out of the fourth in relief of Robbins.
Selinsky hit into a fielder's choice that scored Ferrara to make it 4-0 before Michael Zorillo (Lafayette) brought home Gavin Noriega (Bryant) to further the Blues' advantage to five runs.
Those five runs were all Bristol had in game one as Gallagher and Andrew Castelluccio (St. John's) combined to keep them off the board in the sixth and seventh innings. Castelluccio's three up, three down inning brought the Mainers, who had just two hits in the first six innings, to the plate for one last chance.
"I don't think we gave our best effort for those first six innings," fourth-year manager Nic Lops said. "Early on we need to have a little bit more focus."
Lops' lineup got going in the seventh as Jorge Burgos (Southern New Hampshire) singled with one out in the final frame. Mateo Hernandez (Austin Peay) and Matt Miceli (Stony Brook) worked walks to load the bases with the top of the order up.
Devan Kodali (Vanderbilt), who replaced Jackson Tucker (St. John's) in center field in the sixth inning, worked a long at-bat against Dominic Chieffalo (Scranton), who replaced Jackson Kossow (Iona) after 6.1 innings of scoreless baseball.
Kodali finished the at-bat with a bases-clearing double that put the first runs on the board for the Mainers.
"Devin had a great day," Lops said of Kodali. "He carried himself with a little bit of swagger and played with a lot of confidence."
Kodali came around to score as the next batter, Jack Toomey (Boston College) singled to cut Sanford's deficit to one. Toomey's hit was all the Mainers had left in terms of their comeback effort as C.J. Willis (Quinnipiac) and Colin Barczi (Vanderbilt) put balls into play that found gloves.
Despite the 5-4 loss in game one and a lengthy rain delay before the first pitch of game two, the Mainers carried that momentum from the four-run seventh inning into game two.
"We showed that fight in game one and that momentum certainly carried over to the second game," Lops said. "I thought that the second game was the best we've done all year of laying off bad pitches and not helping the pitchers. It was the best we've done all year of being disciplined in the box."
Willis and Devan Bade (Binghamton) kicked the Mainers offense off early with a pair of one-out doubles in the first inning of game two, which Sanford served as the away team. Bade's double drove home Willis as the Mainers got out to the first lead.
Working with that lead, Cole Schiff (UNC Asheville) allowed a single and a walk to the first two hitters he faced in the home portion of the first. Schiff forced Ferrara into a double play turned by Jared Davis (Virginia Tech) up the middle as part of his act to escape trouble.
The left-handed pitcher worked a 1-2-3 second inning before the Mainers added to their lead in the third. Willis singled before Bade walked to set Ray Velazquez (Vanderbilt) up with no outs and two runners on base.
Velazquez tattooed a ball into the left-center field, which proved to be a double, that scored both Willis and Bade to extend Sanford's lead to 3-0.
An inning later, Davis manufactured a run on his own after working a two-out walk. The shortstop stole both second and third base to sit 90 feet away from home plate. A wild pitch from Andrew Gormley (Charleston) allowed Davis to jog home for Sanford's fourth run.
"That was a huge premium we had today," Lops said of his offense's ability to spread the scoring throughout multiple innings. "We even had a little scoreboard going in the dugout trying to go one-by-one and win every single inning one at a time."
That offense put another run on in the fifth as Ryan Kolben (UMass Amherst) worked a bases-loaded walk that scored Blake Schaaf (Georgetown), who reached on a prior walk.
Beau Brailey (Alabama) pitched the final four innings out of the bullpen for Sanford in relief of Schaaf, who went three innings of shutout baseball. Brailey loaded the bases in the fifth, but Matt Travisano (UMass Amherst) snagged a line drive at third base before the middle infield of Davis and Schaaf turned an inning-ending double play.
"Gritty. Strong," Lops said of the combined performance of both Brailey and Schiff. "Those are two guys that we've been building up methodically this season."
Brailey surrendered a run in the seventh on a single by Anton Lazits (Columbia) but closed the door with a strikeout of Tommy Rollauer (The Citadel).
Sanford ended its day at 1-1, ended its road trip at 2-2 and ended its first half at 11-11. The Mainers get an off day on Sunday before returning to play at Goodall Park against Keene on Monday.
"Guys have certainly earned their roles at this point, although nothing will be definitive," Lops said of the season going forward. "But at the end of the day, there's no other group I'd rather go into war with than these guys. It's a close group. They love each other. They're playing hard for one another."
Images from this story
 Sanford Mainers' Cole Schiff on the mound (Madison Giltner Photography) |
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New England Collegiate Baseball League Stories from June 29, 2024
- Mainers Avoid Summer Blues in Split Doubleheader - Sanford Mainers
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