Mainers Surf Highest Wave During Tsunami of Runs
July 23, 2024 - New England Collegiate Baseball League (NECBL)
Sanford Mainers News Release
Sanford Mainers' Ray Velazquez in action
(, Credit: Madison Giltner Photography)
SOUTH KINGSTOWN, R.I- In a battle between two high-riding offenses that posted football-like numbers, the Sanford Mainers prevailed in a 19-14 victory, their sixth in a row, over the Ocean State Waves on Tuesday night at Old Mountain Field.
Sanford got the scoring started in the third inning as Ray Velazquez (Vanderbilt) reached on the Mainers' first hit of the game. Velazquez came around to score when Jared Davis (Virginia Tech) extended his hitting streak to five games.
Davis' single got by Ocean State's left fielder Harrison Feinberg (Northeastern) allowing Velazquez to score the first of a combined 33 runs between the two sides. That one run scored by Velazquez doubled to two when Jackson Tucker (St. John's) singled to bring home Davis.
Tucker and Caleb Shpur (UConn), who reached on a walk in the plate appearance prior to Tucker's, came around to score as Devan Bade (Binghamton) hit his second home run in as many games. The Connecticut native's fifth home run of the season broke the tie with Velazquez among the top home run hitters on the Mainers.
The Mainers, who used five hits and two errors to bring across five runs in the third, brought across another run in the fourth following Mateo Hernandez's (Austin Peay) one-out bunt single. Hernandez advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt put down by Davis before scoring on an error that Shpur reached on by Donovan Cash (Kennesaw State).
However, Sanford's 6-run lead did not stand for long as the Waves began to ride the tide of their offense in the bottom of the inning.
Logan Hughes (Texas Tech) hit a solo home run to start the bottom of the fourth before Cash was retired for the first out. Eric Genther (Rhode Island) and Aaron Walton (Samford) worked free passes bringing Feinberg to the plate.
Feinberg, who made that earlier error that allowed Sanford to score the first run, launched a three-run home run to cut the deficit to 6-4. Feinberg's home run, which was Ocean State's second of the inning, proved to be just the beginning for the Waves.
"I've said time and time again this summer how baseball is just an incredibly contagious game," manager Nic Lops said of Ocean State's offensive onslaught in the fourth. "They struck fire that inning. They left the ball yard five different times. Got to tip your cap to those guys."
In a nearly identical situation that led to the first three-run home run in the inning, Thomas McAndrews (Fordham) and Greg Pettay (South Alabama) got on base via free passes. With those two on base, Ryan Cooney (Oregon) hit a three-run home run of his own that gave the Waves a 7-6 lead.
Following the home run, Zac Zyons (Bryant) singled to become the seventh Wave to reach base in a row. It became eight Waves in a row when Hughes, who was up for the second time in the inning, doubled to bring around Zyons.
Hughes, who started the inning with a home run, came around to score on a two-run home run by Genther. Genther's long ball was the fourth of the inning for Ocean State and it gave the Waves a 10-6 lead.
Three batters later, after Walton and Feinberg reached on a walk and single respectively, McAndrews put one more ball over the wall to put the 11th, 12th and 13th runs of the inning on the scoreboard for the Waves.
"There was really no head-hanging," Lops said about the attitude of his team after the fourth inning. "It was a weird feeling because even after that 13-run inning, it didn't feel like we were defeated. It just felt like a matter of time until we were going to come back and find a way to win that game."
That feeling turned out to be accurate for Lops' squad as the chipping away process began immediately for the Mainers.
Colin Barczi (Vanderbilt) reached on a walk before Evin Sullivan (Binghamton) and Velazquez reached on singles to load the bases. With the bases loaded, Hernandez walked to push across Sanford's seventh run of the ballgame.
Hernandez's walk was all the Mainers could muster across with the bases loaded as they stranded them there to end the frame. A half-inning later, Ryan Douglas (Stonehill) forced Ocean State to leave the bases loaded with back-to-back strikeouts of Walton and Feinberg.
"Douglas had that inning where he had the bases loaded and only one out, and that's a huge turning point in the game," Lops said of Douglas' ability to escape the fifth-inning jam. "...Being able to get out of that and throw up that zero was massive because that could have been another three or four runs that we would've had to fight back for."
The turning point came quickly as Sanford used the momentum captured by Douglas on the mound to generate more offense in the top of the sixth.
Tucker and Bade singled with one out in the inning, bringing up Barczi, who was coming off his All-Star Game MVP performance on Sunday. Barczi delivered a single to score Bade after Tucker had scored from third base on an error when Bade took off for second on a stolen base attempt.
Three batters later, with Barczi and Blake Schaaf (Georgetown), who reached on an error, Velazquez joined the home run party at Old Mountain Field. Sanford's first baseman put the ball over the left-field fence and by the time it landed not only had he tied Bade for the team lead, but also had made it a one-run game.
"We are playing for each other," Lops said of his team's recent offensive success that has seen the Mainers average 8.67 runs per game over their last six. "We're playing with a lot of energy and a lot of fight. It all starts there."
After Aidan Colagrande (Stony Brook) worked a scoreless bottom of the sixth, the Mainers bats got right back to work in the top of the seventh.
Davis tied the game by himself before an out was recorded in the visitors' portion of the seventh as he led off with a single before stealing second base, reaching third on an error on the throw and advancing to home on a wild pitch.
Shpur and Tucker walked before Bade reached on a bunt attempt to load the bases for Barczi. The Mainers' designated hitter singled to bring home two runners as the Mainers took the lead, 15-13.
A groundout by Schaaf and a sacrifice fly by Velazquez scored Sanford's next two runs as the Mainers put together a four-run advantage.
An inning later, the runs continued to pour on for Sanford as a leadoff single by Shpur, a walk by Tucker and a combined three stolen bases, put two in scoring position for Bade and Barczi.
Both Bade and Barczi, who represented two of Sanford's six All-Stars, lived up to what they have done all season as Bade drove in Shpur with a sacrifice fly and Barczi brought Tucker around to score on a single.
"It's not just one guy each night doing the damage," Lops said of his offenses' 19-run outburst. "Certainly, guys like Devan and Colin have had standout summers, but right now it's nice to see guys that struggled in the early part of this year continuing to battle. It's creating a lineup I wouldn't want to pitch to right now."
Sanford's 19-13 lead became 19-14 as McAndrews homered off Daniel McAliney (Binghamton) in the bottom of the eighth, but Sanford's right-handed pitcher on the mound closed out Sanford's 21st win of the season and sixth straight.
"I thought Danny took a big turn for the better tonight," Lops said of McAliney. "That was incredibly impressive for him to throw two innings and get the final six outs tonight. No lead was safe tonight."
The Mainers look to make it seven straight wins when they host the Danbury Westerners at Goodall Park on Wednesday. First pitch is scheduled for 6:30 p.m.
Images from this story
 Sanford Mainers' Ray Velazquez in action (Madison Giltner Photography) |
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New England Collegiate Baseball League Stories from July 23, 2024
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