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NECBL New England Collegiate Baseball League

Sanford & Vineyard Advance to NECBL Semifinals in Wild Evening

August 2, 2022 - New England Collegiate Baseball League (NECBL) News Release


Instant-Classic Wild Card Round

The sixth-seeded Sanford Mainers upset the #3 Newport Gulls at Cardines Field, while the #4 Martha's Vineyard Sharks used an 11th inning walk-off wild pitch to top the #5 Mystic Schooners in the 2022 NECBL Wild Card games on Monday evening.

Sanford advances to face the #1 Vermont Mountaineers in the semifinals, a best-of-three game series, while Vineyard heads to the #2 seed Bristol Blues for their postseason series.

#6 Sanford Mainers 9 - #3 Newport Gulls 7

W - Jake Poindexter 1-0 (Georgia): 1.0 IP, 4 H, 3 ER, 0 BB, 2 K

L - Logan Mcguire 0-1 (Georgia Tech): 1.0 IP, 3 H, 2 ER, 0 BB, 1 K

S - Brady Afthim 1 (Connecticut): 4.0 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 5 K

Cardines Field in Newport, R.I. - The Sanford Mainers defeated the Newport Gulls by the score of 9-7 to advance to the semifinal round.

Sanford jumped on top of the Gulls early and never trailed, despite several Newport responses offensively. Sanford's Calvin Hewett (Vanderbilt) led off with a single, then Quinn McDaniel (Maine Orono) hit a home run over the left field wall to make it 2-0. The Gulls responded with an RBI single from Slate Alford (Mississippi State).

The Mainers rallied in the third inning. McDaniel reached first base on an error, then Aidan Kane (Delaware) walked. Jake Rainess (Maine Orono) hit an RBI double, then David Bermudez (Manhattan) hit a 2-run double. Later in the inning, Alex Knapp (George Mason) hit an RBI double to make it 6-1.

The Gulls answered quickly in the bottom of the third inning. Colton Ledbetter (Mississippi State) singled and Slate Alford walked. Noah Martinez hit an RBI single, then Alford scored on a passed ball. Alec Makarewicz (East Carolina) hit an RBI double to make it 6-4.

In the top of the fifth inning, Jake Rainess reached on an error and David Bermudez singled. Devan Bade (Binghamton) drove in a run on a safety squeeze bunt, then Adam Dapkewicz (Georgetown) hit a 2-run home run. In the bottom of the inning, Noah Martinez hit a solo home run to lead off the inning. Joshua Kuroda-Grauer (Rutgers New Brunswick) and Alec Makarewicz doubled, then eventually came around to score to make it 9-7 Sanford.

Each pitching staff locked it down from the sixth inning on. That included four innings of shutout ball from Sanford's Brady Afthim, who earned the save.

The Mainers will play the No. 1 Vermont Mountaineers in a best-of-3 series in the semifinals.

#4 Martha's Vineyard Sharks 6 - #5 Mystic Schooners 5 (11 inn.)

W - Camron Hill 1-0 (Georgia Tech) 2.2 IP 2.2 IP 1 H 0 ER 2 BB 1 K

L - Holden Ferrari 0-1 (Salve Regina) 0.2 IP 2 H 1 ER 0 BB 1 K

Vineyard Baseball Park in Oak Bluffs, M.A. - The Martha's Vineyard Sharks walked off the Mystic Schooners to win the wild card round of the NECBL playoffs.

The Schooners struck early with three runs in the first inning. The runs came on an RBI walk from Michael Bello (Auburn) and a pair of RBI groundouts to make it 3-0. The Schooners added to their lead in the second inning on an RBI single from Joseph Jaconski (UNC). The Sharks responded in the bottom of the inning on a Logan Chambers (Tennessee) double to make it 4-1. The score remained that way until the bottom of the fifth when Danny Crossen (Northeastern) knocked a two-run homer to make it 4-3.

Crossen struck again in the seventh inning when his second homer of the game, which tied the game at 4. Martha's Vineyard took the lead in the eighth after Jadyn Jackson (Georgia Tech) scored on a passed ball.

With Mystic down to its final three outs, the Schooners tied the game in the ninth on an RBI single from Jaconski, sending the game into extras. In the bottom of the eleventh, the Sharks had runners on second and third with two outs thanks to singles from Crossen and Thomas Bramley (Penn State) as well as a groundout to move the runners over. The first pitch to Marcus Franco (Nova Southeastern) got away, allowing Crossen to score the game winning run and advance Martha's Vineyard to the next round.

The Sharks will face the Bristol Blues in the NECBL semifinals. Game 1 will be at Muzzy Field on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m.



New England Collegiate Baseball League Stories from August 2, 2022


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