Mainers Survive Choppy Waters to Sink Waves
June 21, 2024 - New England Collegiate Baseball League (NECBL)
Sanford Mainers News Release
Sanford Mainers' Jorge Burgos and Christopher Willis on game night
(, Credit: Madison Giltner Photography)
SANFORD, Maine - With the game-tying run on base, Conner Griffin (Binghamton) recorded the final out as the Sanford Mainers survived a late surge by the Ocean State Waves on Friday night at Goodall Park.
Although the score finished in favor of the Mainers, the visiting Waves got on the board first in the top of the fourth.
Donovan Cash (Kennesaw State) doubled to open the fourth frame against Clay Robbins (Southern Maine), who started the game by retiring all but two of the first 11 batters to come to the plate against him.
After Robbins, who was charged with a loss in both of his first two outings while allowing a combined four runs over 10.2 innings of work, forced a groundout by Aaron Walton (Samford), Eric Fernandez (Miami) came to the plate.
Fernandez hit a ball to center field that resulted in an RBI single that allowed Cash to score as the Miami native gave the Waves the lead. However, the third baseman for Ocean State played a part in giving that lead away in the next half-inning.
Following a leadoff walk to Colin Barczi (Vanderbilt), Matt Travisano (UMass Amherst) chopped a ball down to Fernandez at third base. For the second time in the game, Fernandez got charged with an error after a bobble and a wide throw.
That error allowed Barczi to come around to tie the game as Travisano got all the way to third base.
One batter later, Jorge Burgos (Southern New Hampshire) hit his second home run in as many home games over the left-field fence. That home run, which traveled 362 feet, was hit to a similar spot as his seventh-inning grand slam against Valley on Tuesday and gave the Mainers a 3-1 advantage.
"As of late, he's putting on some great at-bats. He's drawing good walks for this ballclub," manager Nic Lops said about Burgos, who started the season 0-9 from the right-handed batter's box. "He's just really competing."
That score stood until the bottom of the sixth inning as Robbins stranded two runners, who had both reached on hit-by-pitches, on base with two flyouts to end the fifth. The left-handed pitcher then worked a three up, three down inning in the sixth in part due to an acrobatic catch by Jared Davis (Virginia Tech) in center field.
The Maine native ended the top of the sixth inning with a strikeout of Thomas McAndrews (Fordham). That strikeout was the end of the line for Robbins as he finished with six strikeouts in six innings of three-hit, one-run baseball.
"He had tremendous command of his changeup, which I think can be the most deadly pitch in baseball when you're throwing it for a strike," Lops said of Robbins. "He had a lot of guys off balance."
Robbins left in line for the win as the bats put more insurance runs on in the sixth.
Burgos walked to start the bottom of the sixth before advancing to second on a wild pitch. That wild pitch put Burgos in scoring position when Mateo Hernandez (Austin Peay) cranked a pitch to the left-field gap.
Hernandez ended up on second base with an RBI double as Burgos came home to score. The third shortstop for Sanford ended up on third base on a stolen base before coming around to score on a sacrifice fly by Davis.
The Waves got those two runs back in the top of the seventh inning as Eric Genther (Rhode Island) drove a two-run double into the outfield. That double scored both Greg Pettay (South Alabama) and Tommy Meluskey (Oregon).
As the back-and-forth continued, the Mainers struck for another in the bottom of the inning as C.J. Willis (Quinnipiac) came around to score after his leadoff double helped load the bases. Willis scored on a wild pitch from Kyler Carmack (Mississippi) to make it a 6-3 game, but Carmack escaped further trouble with a popout and two swinging strikeouts.
In the top of the eighth, T.J. Curley (Mount St. Mary's) replaced Andrew Castelluccio (St. John's) on the mound. Curley allowed one run to score on an RBI single by Ryan Cooney (Oregon). Cooney tried to extend his single into a double, but Willis threw him out at second base with the help of a tag from Hernandez.
"Just not letting the little failures that they had set them back too much and then snowball," Lops said about the big outs that his bullpen managed despite allowing four runs over three innings of work. "Being able to not let things get out of control is big."
Conner Griffin (Binghamton) followed Curley and allowed another run out of the bullpen on a groundout by Melusky after Zach Plasschaert (Arizona) reached on a pinch-hit double to start the ninth.
With the tying run in Genther on first after a two-out single, the Pennsylvania native finished off his third save as he forced Cash to fly out to center field to end the game.
The 6-5 win put Sanford back in the win column after its four-game winning streak was snapped on Thursday night against North Shore. The Mainers are scheduled for another home game on Saturday against the Bristol Blues.
Images from this story
 Sanford Mainers' Jorge Burgos and Christopher Willis on game night (Madison Giltner Photography) |
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New England Collegiate Baseball League Stories from June 21, 2024
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- Mainers Survive Choppy Waters to Sink Waves - Sanford Mainers
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