Mainers Blanketed as Skid Reaches Three
June 11, 2023 - New England Collegiate Baseball League (NECBL)
Sanford Mainers News Release
SANFORD, Maine - Change of pace.
After being able to mount seven separate comebacks over the course of the first three games of the season, the Sanford Mainers fell short of making one in a 2-0 loss to Keene on Sunday afternoon.
Despite the low-scoring affair, both teams had scoring chances often as the two combined to leave 18 runners on base, including many in scoring position.
Keene did not leave a runner on base in the top of the first inning after an inning-ending double play helped Sanford starter Jack Mullen (Bowdoin) work around a leadoff single by Aiden Corn (Pasco Hernando).
On the other hand, Sanford stranded a runner on base coming in the way of Eddie Eisert (Virginia Tech), who tripled to open the bottom of the first, but was stranded 90 feet away by the SwampBat starter Eric Chalus Jr. (Kent State).
In the second inning, the SwampBats made quick work of a leadoff walk by Brayden Horton (Liberty). After Horton found his way on base on four straight balls, second baseman Garrett Rice (Missouri Southern) rang a home run off the left field foul pole to put Keene ahead 2-0.
The opportunities kept coming for both teams, but the pitchers kept getting the results they needed when they needed them.
With two runners in scoring position in the bottom of the fourth, Mullen got Ramses Cordova (Winthrop) to roll over a ball to Devan Bade (Binghamton) at shortstop to end the threat.
Mullen returned to the bump in the fifth, which resulted in Sanford's only inning in which it did not allow a base runner to reach. A flyout by Blake DeLamielleure (Jacksonville) ended the fifth and proved to be the day for the second-year member of the Mainers as Mullen allowed just the two runs on six hits while striking out four.
Chalus Jr. also ended his night following five scoreless frames after he worked around a hit-by-pitch of Levi McAllister (UConn) finishing his line of work with three hits and four strikeouts.
From there on out it was a bullpen and both managers, Nic Lops and Shaun McKenna, pulled the right string each time.
Ryan Dee (Binghamton) and Nick Thompson (Colby) each went two scoreless innings for Sanford, combining for four strikeouts in the process.
As for McKenna, his decision to put Tyler Tornberg (Bryant) after Chalus Jr. turned out to be the right one as despite walking the first two hitters he faced, Tornberg worked a scoreless sixth, which included double play.
The Mainers put two runners on again in the eighth as they faced Will Newell (Pasco Hernando) in his second inning of work, but Newell would work himself out of it and then retire the Mainers 1-2-3 in the ninth to secure the three-inning save for Keene.
Sanford will look to snap its losing streak when they put Cody Bowker (Georgetown) on the mound to face Upper Valley tomorrow at Goodall Park.
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New England Collegiate Baseball League Stories from June 11, 2023
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- Mainers Blanketed as Skid Reaches Three - Sanford Mainers
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