Mainers Dominate Schooners Early to Take Series Lead
July 31, 2023 - New England Collegiate Baseball League (NECBL)
Sanford Mainers News Release
MYSTIC, CONN. - Coming into the day being shutout for 16 consecutive innings, the Sanford Mainers rode an early offensive outburst to a victory over the Mystic Schooners 11-6 as they took a 1-0 series lead in the first round of the 2023 New England League Postseason.
The Mainers first extended that shutout streak to 17 as Kevin Skagerlind (UMass Amherst) and Cal Hewett (Vanderbilt) were stranded on base in the first inning after back-to-back singles to open the game.
However, Sanford ended the shutout streak in the second inning after a one-out single by Eddie Eisert (Virginia Tech) eventually led to a two-run single off the bat of Hewett. Hewett's single came with the bases loaded and two-outs as after Devin Russell (Maryland) struck out for out number two, Matt Miceli (Stony Brook) and Skagerlind each had singles.
Matt Polk (Vanderbilt) followed Hewett with a hit-by-pitch before Jeremiah Jenkins (Maine) doubled the two-run lead with a two-run double that scored Skagerlind and Hewett.
An inning later, Eisert was aided by a Mystic error as he reached base with one out before Russell followed him with a single to put two runners on. Skagerlind cleared both of them off the basepaths with a double to make it 6-0.
In the fifth, the Moose put up their second four-spot of the game behind a rally that saw all nine of their hitters coming to the plate.
Eisert, Russell and Miceli started out the inning with a trio of singles before Jack Toomey (Holy Cross), who entered the game as a replacement for Skagerlind, hit a ball all the way to the wall that knocked in Eisert and Russell.
Miceli came around to score on a groundout by Hewett before Toomey scored on a sacrifice fly by Polk to make it 10-0 in favor of Sanford.
Justin Honeycutt (UNC Asheville) returned to the mound for the bottom of the fifth inning and continued his dominating ways from the first four innings. Honeycutt stranded two runners on in the fifth and another one in the sixth inning before being removed in favor of Nick Thompson (Colby College).
Thompson kept the trend of stranding runners on base alive as he stranded two on in his first inning of work, which allowed the Sanford bats to come back up to the plate.
A leadoff triple by Devan Bade (Binghamton) was followed by a fly ball off the bat of Nick Roselli (Binghamton) that scored Bade and made it 11-0 for the green and yellow.
In the bottom of that frame, Thompson struggled to get outs as the Schooners finally got on the board. A single from Landon Moran (Stetson) scored three runs, one of which came after the fact on an error, before another single from Maddix Dalena (UConn) put the fourth run on the board for Mystic.
Mystic kept finding ways to score in the ninth as a single by Evan Sullivan (Binghamton) off Jake Poindexter (Lipscomb) brought in a fifth run and a fielder's choice by Caleb Stelly (Louisiana Lafayette) gave way to the sixth and final run.
Sanford has a chance to advance to the second round of the playoffs as they host Mystic in game two tomorrow at Goodall Park.
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