Mainers Run into Wrong Team at Wrong Time as Winning Ways Are Halted
June 29, 2023 - New England Collegiate Baseball League (NECBL)
Sanford Mainers News Release
Sanford Mainers' Jack Mullen on game night
(Sanford Mainers, Credit: Madison Giltner Photography)
SANFORD, Maine - With an opportunity for their third straight victory, the Sanford Mainers fell to the NECBL-leading Newport Gulls, who left Goodall Park with their seventh consecutive victory, 6-2 on Thursday evening.
The first three innings of the game went scoreless with Jack Mullen (Bowdoin) and Jake Hunter (East Carolina) getting through the first third of the game in different manners.
Mullen faced the minimum number of batters through the first trio of visitors' frames as he erased the only baserunner, Trent Farquhar (Michigan State), on a 'strike 'em out, throw 'em out' double play.
Hunter, who entered the game with a 0.00ERA through 8.2 innings on the mound, allowed the Mainers to have five of the first six baserunners to start the contest. The North Carolina native used five strikeouts to escape trouble and keep his perfect ERA intact through those first three innings as he stranded four runners on the basepaths with the other, Matt Polk (Vanderbilt), being caught stealing.
A half-inning after the green and yellow did not move Devan Bade (Binghamton) from first base after a one-out single, Sam Kulasingam (United States Air Force Academy) recorded a one-out single of his own.
Kolby Branch (Baylor) brought the two-time Tony Gwynn Player of the Year in the Mountain West around on a triple in the very next at-bat. Branch was not left on third for too long, as Farquhar brought him in on a sacrifice fly to extend the lead to 2-0.
Mullen worked a scoreless top of the fifth inning while Hunter did not the same in the bottom of the frame, which proved to be the last of his night after five innings of three-hit, scoreless baseball while striking out seven and walking two.
The Mainers sent Mullen out to start the sixth inning as he outlasted his counterpart on the mound, but the righty for Sanford ran into issues as he faced the top of the order.
Niko Brini (UConn) worked a leadoff walk that was followed by Kulasingam's second hit of the game to put two runners on with now outs. After the second-year Mainer recorded the first out against Branch, Farquhar registered his second RBI of the game as a single drove in Brini.
Farquhar's hit effectively ended the night for Mullen after 5.1 innings in which he yielded five hits and one walk to go along with his two strikeouts. Nick Thompson (Colby College) came out of the bullpen and gave up the second sacrifice fly of the night, this one to Tyler Hare (Georgia Tech), before he got the final out of the top of the sixth to finish Mullen's line with four earned runs.
Thompson worked into and out of trouble in the seventh inning as he loaded the bases, but managed to keep Newport down as they upped their runners left on base from two to five on the night.
The successor for the Sanford lefty came in the form of Declan Lavelle (Fordham), who put himself into trouble immediately. The New York native came into the game allowing no walks over his first 7.2 innings of work but allowed his first two hitters to reach on free passes.
Farquhar and Kolton Freeman (Dartmouth), the latter of the two being a pinch runner, scored on a pair of singles by Michael Anderson (Rhode Island) and Noah Smith (Louisville).
Sanford not only put runners on base in the bottom of the eighth, but also managed to get them around to score. Bade, who reached first on a walk, was brought all the way around on a Jeremiah Jenkins (Maine) RBI double to cut the score to 6-1.
One at-bat later, Logan Poteet (Vanderbilt) singled off his college teammate David Horn (Vanderbilt) to drive in the second run of the game for the Mainers. It was Horn, however, that got the best of another Commodore in the ninth as after Polk reached base on a hit-by-pitch, Horn caught a comeback from Cam Johnson (UNC Asheville) and doubled up Polk at first.
Horn got the third out of the inning, and 27th of the game for the Newport pitching staff, as he forced Matt Miceli (Stony Brook) to line out to the other shortstop in Branch to end the game.
The Mainers travel to Vermont tomorrow as they look to get the best of the team above them in the North Division for the first time this season.
Images from this story
 Sanford Mainers' Jack Mullen on game night (Madison Giltner Photography) |
New England Collegiate Baseball League Stories from June 29, 2023
- Mainers Run into Wrong Team at Wrong Time as Winning Ways Are Halted - Sanford Mainers
- Vermont Suffers Setback Against North Shore On Thursday Night - Vermont Mountaineers
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