Mainers Hang on Late for First Home Win of 2024
June 15, 2024 - New England Collegiate Baseball League (NECBL)
Sanford Mainers News Release
Sanford Mainers' Raymond Velazquez in action
(, Credit: Madison Giltner Photography)
SANFORD, Maine - It was not quite as easy as eating a 'Cheeseburger in Paradise', but the Sanford Mainers beat the Keene SwampBats for a third time in 2024 by a score of 8-5 on Jimmy Buffett Day at Goodall Park on a Sanford Saturday night.
The hometown kid T.J. Curley (Mount St. Mary's) got the nod on the mound for Sanford in just their fourth home game of the year. Curley, who previously made two relief appearances during the Mainers stretch of six-of-seven games away from Goodall Park, got a rousing applause from the Sanford faithful before taking the rubber.
Curley gave Mainers fans even more to applaud as he struck out Alex Alicea (Louisville) and Bryce Molinaro (Penn State) as part of a three-up, three-down inning in the top of the first.
An inning later, the Sanford native found himself in two-out trouble as Jake Koonin (Princeton) and Austin Hawke (Wake Forest) found their way aboard via a double and a walk respectively.
With Koonin on third base after a steal and Hawke leading from first base, Curley registered his third punchout of the contest in the form of Victor Izquierdo's (United State Naval Academy) swinging strikeout.
Because of Curley's tightrope walking to escape the top of the second inning, the Mainers and Ray Velazquez (Vanderbilt) had the chance to take the early lead in the bottom of the frame.
Velazquez, who entered the day without his first hit of the summer, launched a pitch from Ryan Van Buren (Maryland) 373 feet at 95 miles per hour off the bat. Velazquez rounded the bases and touched home plate for the 1-0 advantage.
Curley worked around a one-out single by Alicea in the third as he finished his first appearance in the same ballpark he grew up going to. The lefty exited after three innings of three-hit and three-strikeout baseball.
Andrew Castelluccio (St. John's) relieved Curley when the top of the fourth came around after Van Buren silenced Sanford in the third. Castelluccio worked a 1-2-3 top of the fourth inning that was matched by an outfield assist by Koonin that nabbed Colin Barczi (Vanderbilt) at the plate to keep Sanford scoreless in the bottom half.
In the fifth, the Connecticut native found himself in some trouble after Izquierdo, Alicea and Joe Jaconski (Penn State) loaded the bases. With two outs, the right-handed reliever worked a groundout of Molinaro as he escaped trouble and kept Sanford ahead 1-0.
With momentum on the home side, Nathan Barksdale (Austin Peay) singled to open the bottom half of the fifth. Two batters later, Jackson Tucker (St. John's), who was making his Mainers debut, walked to bring up the top of the order with two runners on base and one out.
Jared Davis (Virginia Tech) laid down a bunt to move the runners over, but the speed of the league leader in steals legged out the infield single to load the bases for Devan Bade (Binghamton).
Bade, who was unsuccessful in his first two trips to the plate, attacked the first pitch he saw from Van Buren and hit it to the outfield. Bade ended up on second base with a double as Barksdale and Tucker both scored, and Davis advanced to third.
On the first pitch of the next plate appearance, Barczi, who had walked an inning prior, popped a ball into the outfield that was deep enough to score Davis for the four-run lead.
One pitch later, Corbin Lanowitz (UNC Asheville) singled to bring home the man responsible for the big hit in the inning, Bade, to push the advantage to five runs. Lanowitz's first-pitch single was followed by a first-pitch single by Velazquez, making it the fifth pitch the Mainers put into play and making it the end of the night for Van Buren.
Joe Carrea (UConn) recorded the final out of the inning for Shawn McKenna's squad to keep the game in striking distance at five runs. Carrea's strikeout of Blake Schaaf (Georgetown) proved important as the SwampBats got their bats going in the next half-inning.
Alex Calarco (Maryland) singled with one out in the top of the sixth before Koonin unleashed a no-doubt, two-run home run over the left field wall as the score read 5-2. Before the inning was over, Hawke was hit by a pitch and scored two batters late on a run-scoring single off the bat of Nick Romano (Florida Atlantic).
As was the theme in the first two meetings between the two North Division rivals, it seemed like the scoring was done after the seven-run outburst between the bottom of the fifth and top of the sixth as the game remained at 5-3 headed into the bottom of the eighth.
Schaaf began the bottom of the eighth with a five-pitch base on balls prior to Barksdale reaching on an error by Koonin in left field. Devin Russell (Maryland), who doubled in the sixth inning for his first hit of the year, then worked a walk of his own to load the bases for Tucker.
With Tucker at the plate, Jacob Bean (Kent State) delivered a wild pitch to the Goodall Park backstop that allowed Schaaf to score. Later in the at-bat, Tucker laced a ball into the outfield that gave way to Barksdale coming home for a 7-3 lead.
Bade, who came into the day with three runs batted in on the season, came through with his third RBI of the game on a single to center that scored Russell prior to Tucker being thrown out at home plate.
Those runs were important as Beau Brailey (Alabama), who worked around a leadoff single in the top of the eighth inning, struggled to get outs in the ninth.
Brailey allowed a leadoff single to Jaconski before walking another Nittany Lion in Molinaro. With runners on first and second, Brailey got Ripken Reese (Kent State) to bounce into a fielder's choice, however, an error on the backend of the play allowed Jaconski to score to trim Sanford's lead to four.
The right-hander from Georgia then allowed a walk to Calarco and a single to Koonin to load the bases with just one out. Brailey was left in the game following Koonin's single, but the Georgia native allowed a bases-loaded walk to Hawke to end his night.
With the go-ahead run at the plate, Jackson Walsh (Wheaton) came out of the bullpen for the final two outs of the game. Walsh struck out Andrew Wiggins (Indiana) before getting Romano to ground out to Schaaf to secure the victory for the Mainers.
Sanford heads to Vermont tomorrow as they look for revenge for Thursday's doubleheader sweep against Upper Valley. First pitch is slated for 5:05 p.m.
Images from this story
 Sanford Mainers' Raymond Velazquez in action (Madison Giltner Photography) |
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New England Collegiate Baseball League Stories from June 15, 2024
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