Middle-Inning Success Propels Mainers to Third Straight Victory
July 18, 2023 - New England Collegiate Baseball League (NECBL)
Sanford Mainers News Release
Sanford Mainers celebrate win
(Sanford Mainers, Credit: Madison Giltner Photography)
KEENE, N.H. - The Sanford Mainers used back-to-back innings to put across all six of their runs in a 6-2 win over the Keene SwampBats on Tuesday evening.
Playing their North Division foe for the second consecutive time and the fifth time in their last eight games, the Mainers struggled to get runs across early. The Moose stranded a combined seven runners on base over the first four frames, which included leaving the bases loaded in the fourth.
In the fifth inning though, the Mainers finally got a runner around and it came in the way of Cal Hewett (Vanderbilt), who led off the inning with a bang-bang play at first base. Hewett then used his second and third stolen bases of the game, which now has his season total at a NECBL-leading 21, to advance all the way to third base.
Two batters later, the reigning NECBL Player of the Week Logan Poteet (Vanderbilt) drove in his college teammate with an RBI single to right field.
Cody Bowker (Georgetown) went back out the bump with a fresh 1-0 lead in the bottom of the fifth, but after he walked Blake DeLamielleure (Jacksonville) with one out, he was removed for Nick Thompson (Colby College).
Thompson hit the first batter he saw, but he found his way out of trouble to finalize Bowker's line at 4.1 innings of two-hit, no-run baseball in which he racked up four strikeouts and walked three.
With the 1-0 lead still intact, the Mainers went right back to work in the top of the sixth inning. Jack Toomey (Holy Cross) started the inning with a first-pitch solo home run off Kayden Campbell (Louisville), which doubled Sanford's lead to 2-0.
Nick Roselli (Binghamton) followed him with a single before Hewett reached on a walk and Devan Bade (Binghamton) loaded the bases with a hit-by-pitch.
Poteet, fresh off an All-Star selection and facing a new pitcher in Sam Portnoy (Rutgers), kept his season success going with his RBI single of the game to put the Mainers ahead 3-0. The Mainers played station-to-station on that single, so when Eddie Eisert (Virginia Tech) was hit with a pitch, Hewett came around for the fourth run of the game.
Matt Polk (Vanderbilt) grounded into a fielder's choice with the out coming of Bade at home plate. With the bases still loaded, Devin Russell (Maryland) delivered the final punch of the ballgame for the Mainers offense with a two-run single down the left field line.
DeLamielleure drove in two runs for Keene with a groundout that scored Jordan Smith (George Mason) off Chris Gallagher (Wright State) in the seventh and a sacrifice fly off Zack Given (UMass Amherst) that scored Christian Mercedes (Southern New Hampshire) in the ninth.
Sanford looks to extend its winning streak to a season-high four games when it hosts Martha's Vineyard at Goodall Park tomorrow evening.
Images from this story
 Sanford Mainers celebrate win (Madison Giltner Photography) |
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