Mainers Ride Offensive Outburst to Capture Fourth Straight Road Win
July 8, 2023 - New England Collegiate Baseball League (NECBL)
Sanford Mainers News Release
Sanford Mainers' Devin Russell congratulated by team
(Sanford Mainers, Credit: Madison Giltner Photography)
KEENE, N.H. - Score early and score often.
It has not been as easily done as said for the Sanford Mainers this season, but led by three home runs they captured an 11-6 victory over the Keene SwampBats on Saturday night.
The first blast for the Mainers came early, but not as early as their first run of the ballgame. Cal Hewett (Vanderbilt) led off the game with a single off Francisco Sanchez (Southern New Hampshire). After advancing to third base on a stolen base that turned into more as the ball kicked into center field, Hewett found himself 90-feet away from scoring.
Matt Polk (Vanderbilt) drove in his Commodores teammate with a sacrifice fly to put the Mainers ahead 1-0 early. Two batters after Polk, another Commodore in Logan Poteet (Vanderbilt) kept the inning alive with a two-out single.
Jeremiah Jenkins (Maine) took the first two pitches he saw for balls before depositing a ball over the center field fence for a 364-foot home run that led the Moose to a 3-0 lead.
An inning later, Devin Russell (Maryland) added a home run of his own, this one to right field, to put the Mainers ahead 4-0.
It was some deja vu for Russell as he came to the plate again in the fourth with the score still sitting at 4-0. The New Jersey native deposited his second opposite-field solo home run of the game to nearly the same spot to put the green and yellow ahead 5-0.
In the fifth, the Mainers traded the long ball for small ball as a leadoff walk by Hewett, who recorded his second and third stolen bases of the game to get to third, and a single by Devan Bade (Binghamton) proved enough to put the sixth run of the game on the board for Sanford.
Bade's college teammate Ryan Dee (Binghamton) ran into trouble, which was the first trouble of the game that came to fruition against Dee, who had stranded four runners through the first four innings.
A leadoff walk to Matt Brown-Eiring (Stony Brook) and a one-out walk to Tony Livermore (Northwestern) gave Keene its best chance to score on the night. After Dee recorded out number two, Devin Taylor (Indiana) reached on an error that allowed Brown-Eiring to touch home plate.
That error, which was charged to Polk, kept the inning alive and after another walk to load the bases, Dee allowed a two-run single to Jackson Owen (Northeast Mississippi CC). Owen's single was the end of the night for Dee, and Nick Thompson (Colby College) got out of the jam finishing his predecessor's line at 4.2 innings of five-hit, three-run, all of which was unearned, baseball.
Sanford answered a half-inning later by extending its lead right back up to six with a three-run frame of its own. Cam Johnson (UNC Asheville) led off the inning with a single and Russell followed him a plate appearance later with a walk.
Kevin Skagerlind (UMass Amherst) loaded the bases with a single before Hewett drove in Johnson with a sacrifice fly. One batter later, Polk made up for his error with a two-run single that drove in Russell and Skagerlind.
In the eighth, Skagerlind helped add another as he led off the inning with a double before coming around to score on a wild pitch, but the SwampBats were quick to respond as they made things interesting against Michael Simes (UMass Lowell).
Simes recorded out number one before a streak of four straight hitters reaching on a combination of two hit-by-pitches and two walks started. The first victim of a hit-by-pitch, Ramses Cordova (Winthrop) came in to score on the second walk, which was issued to Taylor.
Evan Goforth (Indiana) scored on a wild pitch before Jordan Smith (George Mason) came in on a sacrifice fly by Brayden Horton (Liberty).
Sanford added one in the ninth as Skagerlind missed a home run by a matter of feet, which resulted in a double that Johnson touched home plate on.
Jake Poindexter (Georgia) finished things off in the ninth as the Mainers won 11-6 to capture their fourth straight road victory.
Sanford has the day off tomorrow before returning to action against the same Keene team on Monday at Goodall Park.
Images from this story
 Sanford Mainers' Devin Russell congratulated by team (Madison Giltner Photography) |
• Discuss this story on the New England Collegiate Baseball League message board...
New England Collegiate Baseball League Stories from July 8, 2023
- Mainers Ride Offensive Outburst to Capture Fourth Straight Road Win - Sanford Mainers
- Vermont Snaps Skid With 4-3 Win Over North Adams - Vermont Mountaineers
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.
