Mainers Plucked by Powerful Pilgrims
June 9, 2018 - New England Collegiate Baseball League (NECBL)
Sanford Mainers News Release
Sanford - The Plymouth Pilgrims continued their power hitting ways using a pair of home runs to earn a 6-4 victory on their home turf at Forges Field on Friday night, handing the Mainers their first road loss of the season. The Pilgrims have hit at least one home run in every game they have played, hitting multiple home runs in two of their four outings to begin the year.
A late start to the game seemed to adversely affect both starting pitchers as they were unable to go through their normal game day routines and both came out in the first and surrendered a few runs. The Pilgrims' David Bates started the game by giving up five walks in the top of the first inning which resulted in two runs for the Mainers.
His offense helped him out in the bottom half of the inning as they were able to come back and score three runs of their own off of the Mainers' Tyler Mortenson (Woodlands, TX/Air Force Academy) to take a 3-2 lead into the 2nd.
Mortenson would settle in though and came back with two scoreless innings before the Pilgrims were able to get another run with their first home run of the night off the bat of catcher Colton Parrish on the first pitch he saw in the fourth to put Plymouth up 4-2. Mortenson got the Pilgrims to bounce into a double play to get the first two outs of the inning, but an error put a man on so the Mainers brought in Darren Williams (Maysville, Ky./Eastern Kentucky) who got the final out.
Williams came back out in the fifth and got the Pilgrims to go one, two, three, including two strikeouts as he retired all four batters he faced. He was replaced for the sixth in favor of left hander Kyle Skidmore (Franklin, Mass./Hofstra) who was seeing his first action on the mound this summer. Skidmore faced four batters not giving up a hit to retire the side.
Sanford wasn't done yet as the hitters helped out their bullpen by tying the game up at 4 apiece in the top half of the 7th. The Mainers got back to back doubles to lead off the inning from Johnny Rizer (Cypress, TX/Texas Christian University) and Tyler Solomon (Haymarket, Va./Vanderbilt) with the tying run crossing the plate on an RBI groundout by catcher Harrison Salter (Bloomfield Hills, Mich./Michigan).
The Mainers continued to flex their depth in the bullpen as in the bottom half of 7th inning they turned to Connor Yoder (Enola, Penn./Virginia Tech), getting his first appearance on the mound this summer, to keep the scored tied into the 8th. The big righty geared up with his fastball and broke the hitters will with a devastating curve as he proved to be unhittable striking out the side on just 16 pitches.
Jake Alu (Hamilton, N.J./Boston College) led off the top of the 8th with a single, his third hit in a night that Plymouth just could not get the versatile infielder out as he reached base safely in all five of his plate appearances and accounted for three of the team's six hits. The Mainers were unable to bring him around, however, and they moved to the bottom of the 8th still knotted up at four.
The Pilgrims dealt the deciding blow on the night in the bottom of the 8th as a leadoff walk would put a man on and with one out, William Homza put one out over the right centerfield fence off John Murphy (Merchantville, N.J./Maryland) who was making his first appearance after joining the team on Wednesday afternoon. The hard throwing righty bounced back with some help from his defense as Shane Marshall (Webster, N.Y./Binghamton) made a great play in centerfield to double up the Pilgrims and take the game to the 9th.
After two quick outs, the Mainers made some noise as they were able to get runners on first and second with a chance to tie it, but were unable to capitalize on the opportunity as Grant Donahue was able to pick up the third out and give himself the win after taking over in the top half of the 8th.
Despite the loss, the positive energy was still flowing through the Sanford dugout after the game as they know they are starting to see the ball better at the plate and their bullpen has been doing their job over the first few games of the 2018 season.
The Mainers have the day off on Saturday before going back on the road again on Sunday to take on the defending NECBL Champions, the Valley Blue Sox, who have started the year off 3-0. You can listen and watch every game live on the NECBL Broadcast Network or tune in to 102.3 The Legends in Sanford or just visit their website to stream the game for free. Head over to www.sanfordmainers.com for all the information, stats, scores and updates you will need all season long.
New England Collegiate Baseball League Stories from June 9, 2018
- Nighthawks Top Muskrats in Home Opener - Upper Valley Nighthawks
- Walks and Errors Key to Mountaineers Demise as They Fall to Keene, 12-4 - Vermont Mountaineers
- SwampBats Get 2nd Consecutive Win - Keene Swamp Bats
- Buddy Hayward, C.J. Dandeneau Dazzle on Hill for Bay Sox in Impressive 6-1 Win over Pilgrims - New Bedford Bay Sox
- Mainers Plucked by Powerful Pilgrims - Sanford Mainers
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