Mainers' Winning Streak Ends in Walk-Off Fashion
June 22, 2023 - New England Collegiate Baseball League (NECBL)
Sanford Mainers News Release
BRISTOL, Connecticut - It was a tough ending to a strong Connecticut trip for the Sanford Mainers on Thursday night as they lost by a score of 3-2 on a walk-off by Skye Selinsky (Columbia) to snap a three-game unbeaten streak.
Jake Babuschak (Sacred Heart) and Jack Mullen (Bowdoin) were entrusted with the pitching duties by their respective managers. Neither of them wanted to give the upper hand to their counterpart as the game quickly became a pitcher's duel.
The first inning-and-a-half were scoreless until with two-outs in the bottom of the second, Mullen became the first to flinch. Mullen left a ball up in the zone that Daniel Hussey (Central Connecticut State) hit 399 feet to right-center field to put the Blues ahead by one.
Mullen's offense got even the next half-inning as Kevin Skagerlind (UMass Amherst) got the inning started with a double. An at-bat later, Cal Hewett (Vanderbilt) followed suit in terms of getting on base as he was hit by a pitch. The two outfielders, who are both returners to the Sanford roster, combined for a double steal to set up second and third with no outs.
It was another returner, Matthew Polk (Vanderbilt) that drove Skagerlind in with a groundout to shortstop as a run went up on the visitor's portion of the scoreboard to even the score at one apiece.
Hewett was stranded on third base, which was common through the next stretch of scoreless baseball. Aside from just Hewett, the Mainers stranded a runner in scoring position in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings, including two others that were left 90-feet away at third base.
In the eighth, the Mainers stranded runners in scoring position again, but they did so after breaking the scoreless streak that had lasted from when Skagerlind scored.
Logan Poteet (Vanderbilt), Devan Bade (Binghamton) and Cam Johnson (UNC Asheville) reached base in subsequent order to load the pond for pinch hitter Jeremiah Jenkins (Maine). Jenkins skyed a ball to center field that proved deep enough to score Matt Miceli (Stony Brook), who entered the game as a pinch runner for Poteet.
Mullen, who worked four 1-2-3 innings from the third to the seventh, ran into trouble starting with a Selinsky infield single, which turned into two bases on an error by Bade. Griffin Arnone (Northwestern) followed with a single, which reached the outfield, to put runners on the corner with no outs.
Selinsky came around to score an at-bat later on a fielder's choice, which knocked Mullen out after 7.1 innings of two-run, five-hit baseball.
Peyton Heisner (Merrimack) came into the game in relief and the first two batters he faced reached base on a fielding error and seeing-eye infield-single. The lefty reliever did not let the loaded bases get to him as he worked a strikeout looking and groundout back to himself that ended the frame.
After Sanford went down in order in the top of the ninth of the inning, Heisner returned to the mound for the bottom of the frame. The Massachusetts native walked Cam Maldonado (Northeastern) to start the bottom of the frame and was replaced by Chris Gallagher (Wright State).
Hussey greeted Gallagher with a single to set up runners on the corner and moved to second base a few pitches later on defensive indifference.
With runners on second and third, Selinsky grounded a ball to Bade, who fielded it on a high hop and threw home, and Pete Durocher (Manhattan), who was used as a pinch runner, slid in under the tag to give the Blues the win.
The Mainers have the day off tomorrow and will return to action on the road against Martha's Vineyard on Saturday.
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New England Collegiate Baseball League Stories from June 22, 2023
- Mainers' Winning Streak Ends in Walk-Off Fashion - Sanford Mainers
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