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Mainers Win a Wild One at Goodall

July 17, 2018 - New England Collegiate Baseball League (NECBL)
Sanford Mainers News Release


Sanford - The Sanford Mainers used the bottom half of a crazy 8th inning to pull out a huge home win as they took down the Keene Swamp Bats 5-4 on Monday night to reclaim 2nd place in the Northern Division race. After falling behind in the top half on a couple of tough plays, the Moose clutched up with two outs to take the lead and slammed the door shut with an exclamation point in the 9th.

After the Mainers fell behind in the top half of the 1st, it didn't take them long to even things as in the bottom of the 2nd Tyler Solomon (Haymarket, Va./Vanderbilt) led off the inning with an absolute bomb over the right centerfield fence, his team-leading 6th of the season, that knotted the game up at 1 apiece as we moved to the 3rd.

Ryan Twitchell (Cumberland, Maine/Rhode Island) turned in his best start of the 2018 NECBL season on the mound for the Moose allowing just a single hit and one run in the first inning, while retiring 15 of the last 17 hitters he faced striking out a pair. The only two batters he didn't retire in that span were the two he hit, but then fanned the very next batter to get out of a very small jam he had worked himself in to.

In the bottom of the 4th, Jonathan White (Lawrenceville, Ga./Presbyterian) led off the inning with his first of two hits on the night and was brought around by the second RBI knock by Tyler Solomon, this time a single right back up the chute that put the Mainers up 2-1. Sanford tacked on another run in the 5th as Brad Czerniejewski (Lake Forest, Illinois/Texas Christian University) smacked a double down the left field line that scored Shane Marshall (Webster, N.Y./Binghamton) who reached on an infield single as the Moose took a 3-1 after five.

Angelo Smith (Thornton, Illinois/Michigan) came on in relief for Twitchell and threw two scoreless innings as he too gave up just a single hit and struck out three on the night.

That pushed the game into the 8th, an inning in which Mainers' fans experienced a roller coaster of emotions to say the very least. In the top half of the inning after a couple of hits brought home a run, the toughest moment of the night came on a questionable balk call that brought the tying run home and eventually the go ahead run scored on a wild pitch and throwing error to give the Swamp Bats a 4-3 lead.

The Mainers, however, were not dismayed as in the bottom of the inning the Swamp Bats closer, Justin Willis, walked the bases loaded with two outs to set Sanford up for some late inning magic. The call was answered by none other than Austin Biggar (Lilburn, Ga./Georgia), who roped a 2-0 fastball right back up the middle that scored Nick Howie (Oakville, Ontario, Canada/Eastern Kentucky) and Johnny Rizer (Cypress, Texas/Texas Christian University) to give the Mainers the lead right back as the Moose jumped on top 5-4 with the game headed into the 9th.

Jack Weisenburger (Rockford, Mich./Michigan) came on to shut things down, which is exactly what he did with a little help from his stellar defense behind him. After the lead off hitter reached on a bunt single, Weisenburger got a pop out to get the first out of the inning. He got the very next batter to hit a ground ball down the first base line which was snagged out of the air by Tyler Solomon who stepped on first and threw a frozen rope to second where Carmine Pagano (McLeansville, N.C./UNC-Asheville) dove in front of the runner and slapped the tag on him for the 3-6 double play that gave the Mainers a massive win at Goodall.

The win shot the Mainers up a half game on the Swamp Bats as they regained control of second place in the Northern Division and now sit just 2.5 games back of first place Valley who will be coming back to Sanford at the end of the week. The Moose have the day off on Tuesday before heading to Keene for another one against the Swamp Bats which will start four straight days of huge divisional games that could go a long way in deciding where the final standings end up. You can catch all the action on Wednesday on 102.3 FM "The Legends" as Mike Glennon will have a solo broadcast for you before the Moose come back to Goodall for two straight on Thursday and Friday. As always, head over to www.sanfordmainers.com to keep up with everything you need with just a third of the season remaining.

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New England Collegiate Baseball League Stories from July 17, 2018


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