Mainers Rally past Danbury 4-3
June 12, 2018 - New England Collegiate Baseball League (NECBL)
Sanford Mainers News Release
Sanford - A picture perfect night for baseball in Sanford, Maine, was not put to waste by the Mainers as they came from behind in a late inning rally to take down the league leading Danbury Westerners at Goodall Park by a final of 4-3. Another brilliant performance by the Sanford bull pen and a couple of huge pinch-hit base knocks fueled the Mainers for their first comeback win of the season, moving them to 3-2 on the year and a half game back of Valley for 1st place in the Northern Division.
After both starting pitchers worked themselves out of jams through the first two innings, it was Danbury who struck first on a three run home run by Walker Imwalle in the top of the 3rd off Sanford's starter Cole Whitney (Campbell Hall, N.Y./Georgia Southern) to make it 3-0 Danbury. The home run was the only blemish on an otherwise good start for Whitney as he struck out four over his three innings of work, not allowing a walk.
Danbury starting pitcher Eli Oliphant brought a no-hitter into the bottom of the 6th inning but it was broken up on a hustle single by Brad Czerniejewski (Lake Forest, Illinois/Texas Christian University). The Mainers, however, would not be able to take advantage of the one out base hit and would move to the 7th still trailing 3-0.
After Ryan Twitchell (Cumberland, ME/Rhode Island) got the Westerners to go down in order on just eight pitches in the top of the 7th, the Mainers offense came alive in the bottom half of the inning for the first time all night.
Shane Marshall (Webster, N.Y./Binghamton) and Johnny Rizer (Cypress, Texas/Texas Christian University) led off the inning with back to back singles bringing Conner Shepherd (Upland, Calif./Texas Christian University) to the plate. Shepherd laid down a sacrifice bunt that was fielded by the pitcher, Oliphant, who threw the ball into the right field corner after double pumping the throw as he had to hesitate because no one was covering first base. Marshall scored from second while Rizer came all the way around from first to score and Shepherd found himself on third with nobody out.
Despite retiring the next two hitters, Oliphant would see his night end with two outs in the inning. Head coach Chris Morris decided to make a change of his own in the Mainers line up as he brought Sanford's leading hitter, Jake Alu (Hamilton, N.J./Boston College), in as a pinch hitter. Alu promptly answered the call as he ripped a line drive into right field for a base hit that scored Shepherd from third and tied the game at 3 apiece. Coach Morris went right back to the dugout to bring in Jonathan White (Lawrenceville, Ga./Presbyterian) for his first plate appearance of the night. On a 1-1 count, White put one off the left field wall that scored Alu and gave the Mainers their first lead of the night at 4-3.
As good as the fireworks in the bottom of the 7th inning were, enough can't be said about the gutsy performance of the Sanford bull pen. Connor Yoder (Enola, Penn./Virginia Tech), Mike Vasturia (Medford, N.J./Maryland), Ryan Twitchell, Kyle Skidmore (Franklin, Mass./Hofstra) and John Murphy (Merchantville, N.J./Maryland) combined for six innings of scoreless relief striking out five and allowing only a single hit. Twitchell picked up the win, his first on the year, as Murphy got his first save after striking out the side to finish the game in the 9th.
The efforts of the Mainers' bull pen have not gone unnoticed as the NECBL recognized Jack Weisenburger's (Rockford, Mich./Michigan) phenomenal week out of the pen for Sanford by naming him the NECBL Pitcher of the Week for Week 1 of the 2018 season. Weisenburger has thrown 2.2 IP over his first two appearances striking out all eight batters he has faced.
The Mainers have the day off on Tuesday but will be right back at it on Wednesday, June 13th, as they travel to Keene to start a stretch of four games in four days where they will play back to back road games followed by two straight at Goodall on Friday and Saturday. For all the latest news, notes, stats and a complete schedule for the Sanford Mainers then just head over to www.sanfordmainers.com.
New England Collegiate Baseball League Stories from June 12, 2018
- SwampBats Route Winnipesaukee, Improve to 3-2 - Keene Swamp Bats
- Two Key Errors Lead Valley Past Vermont in Extras, 6-5 - Vermont Mountaineers
- Nighthawks Win Third Straight - Upper Valley Nighthawks
- Bay Sox Drop Duel of First Place Teams in 7-1 Loss to Nighthawks - New Bedford Bay Sox
- Nearly 100 NECBL Alumni Selected in 2018 MLB Draft - NECBL
- Mainers Rally past Danbury 4-3 - Sanford Mainers
The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.
