Mainers Bats Stymie 'Bats in Offensive Onslaught
July 9, 2024 - New England Collegiate Baseball League (NECBL)
Sanford Mainers News Release
Keene SwampBats' Alex Jankowski and Sanford Mainers' Jackson Tucker on game night
(, Credit: Madison Giltner Photo)
KEENE, N.H. - After scoring 15 runs over their last five games, the Sanford Mainers scored 15 runs in an offensive outburst that carried them to a 15-8 victory over the Keene SwampBats on Tuesday night at Alumni Field.
Over the first two innings, the SwampBats, who came into the day trailing the Vermont Mountaineers by half of a game for the league's best record, controlled the pace.
Frankie Beruvides Jr. (Virginia) saw six batters over the first two frames and set them all down. In response to their starting pitcher's scoreless start, the SwampBats put across three runs against Connor Ball (Alabama).
Jake Koonin (Princeton) and Nicholas Romano (Florida Atlantic) provided the damage in the first inning as a one-out double and single brought across Keene's first run. An inning later, five singles off Ball put across two runs with Austin Hawke (Wake Forest) and Koonin having the run-scoring knocks.
Those were Keene's only three runs for a while as Ball settled into a rhythm. The left-handed pitcher threw scoreless innings in the third, fourth and fifth before leaving one out into the sixth inning.
"He did struggle in those first couple of innings, but he found his stuff, especially in the fourth and fifth innings," assistant coach Tim Moreau, who was serving as the manager in the absence of Nic Lops, said of Ball's outing. "He's such a great player. He's going to be doing a lot more good for us in the next couple of weeks."
Ball left in line for a win as the Mainers bats came to his assistance following his second inning of work with help from Beruvides.
Blake Schaaf (Georgetown) and Mateo Hernandez (Austin Peay) both got hit by pitches to start the visitor portion of the third before Jackson Tucker (St. John's) brought home Sanford's first run. Tucker, who was returning to the lineup for the first time since June 29, singled to left field to bring home Schaaf from second base.
One at-bat later, C.J. Willis (Quinnipiac) grounded out to Bryce Molinaro (Penn State) at third base. As Molinaro released the ball, Hernandez broke for home plate and was ruled safe at the plate following the aggressive base running.
"That was huge just to have that many free passes come around to score," Moreau said of his offense that scored eight runs off 12 free passes. "Very big for the team especially in aiding the big innings in the third and fourth."
Sanford tripled their output from the third inning in the fourth inning as six Mainers came around to score.
Colin Barczi (Vanderbilt) and Corbin Lanowitz (UNC Asheville) kicked off the offense with walks against Beruvides. Schaaf then drove home Barczi to tie the game at three with a one-out single to center field.
After Hernandez reached on another free pass to load the bases, Jared Davis (Virginia Tech) rolled an infield single that brought home a fourth run for Sanford. Two batters later, Willis walked to drive in a fifth run and his second of the game.
With the bases still loaded and two outs, Devan Bade (Binghamton) came to the plate. Bade, who challenged the Mainers' offense to pick up Ball between the bottom of the second and top of the third inning, came through with a bases-clearing double that made it 8-3 in favor of Sanford.
"That's a captain," Moreau said of Bade. "With us struggling over the past few games, you need a guy that's always there for all the guys to go to. He's always going to be there to support anyone whether they're 0-for-4 or 4-for-4."
Bade himself finished the game 3-for-6 as he provided constant support on the offensive end. The third-year Mainer drove in another run in the sixth inning on a run-scoring single that brought around Tucker from second base.
An inning later, Tucker reached on an error by Brett House (Mississippi State) that allowed Hernandez, who reached on his fourth free pass of the contest, to score the Mainers' 10th run. Tucker used his speed to come home from second base on a wild pitch from Alex Jankowski (Stony Brook).
On the very next pitch, Willis launched a ball over the left-center field wall. That home run was Willis' third of the season, all of which have come at Alumni Field, and it traveled 385 feet.
"These guys just took really good at-bats the entire game," Moreau said of what made the offense so potent on Tuesday night. "Getting into deep counts again and again to work free passes and get pitches to hit."
However, Keene's league-leading offense did not stay quiet forever as it struck back in both the seventh and eighth innings. Ripken Reese (Kent State) delivered an RBI double in the seventh inning before Romano launched a grand slam in the eighth to make it a four-run game.
Sanford piled on another crooked number on the scoreboard in the ninth inning as Willis and Bade had run-scoring singles to make it a combined total of nine runs batted in between the two of them. Then, Barczi put the finishing touches on the scoring outburst with a sacrifice fly.
Beau Brailey (Alabama) shut out the SwampBats in the bottom of the ninth inning as the Mainers clinched their fifth win of the season against Keene.
Sanford returns to action on Wednesday against the Vermont Mountaineers. First pitch is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. at Goodall Park.
"We have to be out there to compete," Moreau said of what Sanford needs to do to stack wins together. "We need to compete, trust each other and have each other's backs. If that's the case, we're going to be a very hard team to beat."
Images from this story
 Keene SwampBats' Alex Jankowski and Sanford Mainers' Jackson Tucker on game night (Madison Giltner Photo) |
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New England Collegiate Baseball League Stories from July 9, 2024
- Mainers Bats Stymie 'Bats in Offensive Onslaught - Sanford Mainers
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