Mainers Gallop to Victory on Kentucky Derby Night
July 20, 2024 - New England Collegiate Baseball League (NECBL)
Sanford Mainers News Release
SANFORD, Maine - In a game that saw the bases get loaded and the go-ahead run come to the plate in the top of the ninth inning, the Sanford Mainers avenged their early-season loss to the Newport Gulls with an 8-5 victory over the Gulls on Friday night at Goodall Park.
On Kentucky Derby night, the pitchers, Zach Brassill (Southern New Hampshire) and Kade Shatwell (Oklahoma City), started out of the gates fast as the two combined to see six hitters and get six outs in the first inning.
However, in the second inning, the hitters overtook the pitchers with five runs coming across between the two offenses.
Tyler Hare (Wofford) singled on the first pitch of the top of the second inning before Randy Seymour (Michigan State) tripled down the left-field line on the very next pitch. That triple scored Hare for the game's first run while putting Seymour 90 feet away for Matt Ossenfort (NC State).
Ossenfort also took the first pitch he saw in his at-bat and deposited it into the outfield. His single scored Seymour as the Gulls took a 2-0 lead.
After Brassill rebounded with two ground balls including a double play, the Mainers' batters had the back of their right-handed starter.
Evin Sullivan (Binghamton) reached on an error and Blake Schaaf (Georgetown) worked a walk to put two runners on base for Ray Velazquez (Vanderbilt). Velazquez, who broke a slump with a 2-for-4 performance against North Shore on Thursday, barreled a ball to the left-center field wall.
Velazquez, who got a single on the ball that was hit 362 feet, drove in Sullivan on the play as Sanford cut its deficit to one run. Two batters after Ryan Kolben (UMass) loaded the bases with a blooping single of his own to left field, Jared Davis (Virginia Tech) single to right-center field to bring home Schaaf and Velazquez as the Mainers took a one-run lead.
The 3-2 score stood until the sixth as Brassill and Shatwell both settled into rhythms. Brassill's rhythm lasted one inning shorter than Shatwell's as the New Hampshire native, who was making his first start of the summer, was removed from the game after five innings of four-hit, two-run baseball in which he struck out six hitters.
"He learned from the mistakes he made in the second inning against a really good ballclub," manager Nic Lops said of Brassill, who was not originally slated to start Friday's game for Sanford. "For him to adjust against a lineup like that and give us five really good innings was massive."
A half-inning after Beau Brailey (Alabama) worked around a two-out single by Dixon Williams (East Carolina), the Mainers knocked Shatwell off his rhythm.
Sullivan, Schaaf and Velazquez hit three consecutive singles to kick off the inning with Velazquez's single bouncing into left field to drive home Sullivan. After Kolben flew out to center field, Matt Miceli (Stony Brook) broke a 2-for-28 month of July with a single into center field.
"That's not where we want Matt to be, and that's not where Matt wants Matt to be, but that's a kid we're going to ride and die with," Lops said of his shortstop. "...I told him before that at-bat that he needs to be a little angry, I'd be a little angry if I were him. Lately, it feels like all the tough calls have gone against him."
Miceli's single scored Schaaf and Velazquez to put the Mainers ahead 6-2 in the bottom of the sixth.
An inning later, Miceli's partner on the left side of the infield, Devan Bade (Binghamton) hit a two-run home run straight down the right-field line. Bade's fourth home run of the season tied Velazquez for Sanford's team lead in long balls this season.
In the top of the eight, Newport put a crooked number on the board for the second time in the game. Andrew Duncan (Florida State) hit a single before Niko Brini (Wofford) singled to put two runners on base.
Back-to-back two-out doubles by Williams and Hare brought Duncan, Brini and Williams across to cut Newport's deficit to three runs at 8-5.
Sanford went quietly in the bottom of the eighth against Adam Walker (Austin Peay) before the Gulls loaded the bases against Brailey and Kai Leckzsas (Georgetown). Leckszas struck out Brini and forced Nolan Stevens (Mississippi State) to pop out to Mateo Hernandez (Austin Peay) at third base.
Hernandez's catch put the finishing touches on Sanford's fifth consecutive victory. The Mainers have two days off for the 2024 NECBL All-Star Game before returning to action for their final seven games on Tuesday against the Ocean State Waves.
"We're preaching to these guys to be happy with the way we're playing, but certainly don't become satisfied," Lops said of the Mainers' recent hot streak. "The minute you start thinking you're any good in this game or start getting a lot complacent, it's going to kick you and humble you. Just respecting the game, respecting the opponent and being a family from here on out."
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New England Collegiate Baseball League Stories from July 20, 2024
- Mainers Gallop to Victory on Kentucky Derby Night - Sanford Mainers
- Vermont Erases a Five-Run Deficit to Even Governors Cup Series with a 10-5 Victory - Vermont Mountaineers
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