Sanford Moves Within One Game of the Division Lead with Convincing Win
July 28, 2023 - New England Collegiate Baseball League (NECBL)
Sanford Mainers News Release
Sanford Mainers' Cal Hewett in action
(Sanford Mainers, Credit: Madison Giltner Photography)
MONTPELIER, V.T. - One day after clinching their spot in the 2023 New England League Postseason, the Sanford Mainers put themselves closer to the top of the North Division with a dominating 15-4 victory over the division-leading Vermont Mountaineers on Friday evening.
Sanford was not always in command of the game though as the Mountaineers were the first team to strike, which they did in their first at-bats of the ballgame.
Marshall Toole (Wofford) reached on an error to start the game and advanced to second two batters later when Nate Stocum (Western Carolina) singled. Right after the first hit of the game for Vermont, George Rosales (Fairleigh Dickinson) doubled the Mountaineers' hit total with a double that scored Toole and gave Vermont a 1-0 lead.
A half-inning later, the Mainers struck back to give their starter Ryan Dee (Binghamton) a lot of cushion.
Cal Hewett (Vanderbilt) doubled to open the inning before he advanced to third on a wild pitch out of the hand of Max Chapman (Michigan State). The third-year Mainer came around to score as Jeremiah Jenkins (Maine) grounded out to first base.
Devin Russell (Maryland) followed Jenkins with a base on balls before Devan Bade (Binghamton) singled. Simmi Whitehill (Maryland) broke out of a lengthy struggle with a triple that rolled all the way to the outfield wall and scored both Russell and Bade to give the Moose a 3-1 lead.
The green and yellow did not stop there though as Jack Toomey (Holy Cross) grounded a ball to third base but reached on an error by Connor Bertsch (Dartmouth). Bertsch's error gave way to a 4-1 Sanford lead, but that still was not enough for the Mainer offense.
Eddie Eisert (Virginia Tech) put a temporary pause on the offensive efforts with a popout to second base, but a batter late Matt Polk (Vanderbilt) hit the second triple of the inning for the Mainers. Polk's triple scored Toomey for the fifth run of the inning for the visitors.
Those five runs were not even half of the final second inning totals as Hewett hit his second double of the inning to score Polk and tack on another run for a 6-1 lead.
Nick Roselli (Binghamton), who reached on a hit-by-pitch prior to Hewett's double, Hewett and Jenkins, who reached on a hit-by-pitch after Hewett's double, were all on base when Russell came up for his second at-bat of the inning.
Russell delivered a single in front of Toole in left field that scored both Roselli and Hewett as more and more Mainers touched the pentagon that is home plate.
Bade, the next batter, delivered the final blow of the inning in the next at-bat as he cleared the left field fence with a 350-foot, three-run home run to make it 11-1 Mainers.
Sanford kept things going in the third inning, but not without a little help from the Mountaineers. Eisert delivered a one-out double before Polk grounded to second base for the second out of the visitors' portion of the third.
That is when Roselli lifted a ball to Cameron Santerre (Rhode Island College) in center field. Santerre got turned around a couple of times before the ball hit his glove and then the grass to give way to the twelfth run in Eisert to touch the plate.
Two batters after that error, Jenkins, who had participated in the home run derby over the weekend, kept the party alive with a three-run home run that scored Roselli and Hewett, who had walked in the prior plate appearance.
That blast, which was the second of the game for Sanford and fourth in the past two games, ended the scoring at 15 runs for the Mainers.
The Mountaineers put three more runs across the board the rest of the game with a home run by Rosales and a two-run double by Stocum, but the game was out of reach by that point.
With the win, Sanford won the season series against Vermont and closed the gap to just one game atop the division standing. The Mainers play Keene tomorrow while they'll need Upper Valley to get the best of Vermont in their doubleheader to close that gap.
Images from this story
 Sanford Mainers' Cal Hewett in action (Madison Giltner Photography) |
New England Collegiate Baseball League Stories from July 28, 2023
- Sanford Moves Within One Game of the Division Lead with Convincing Win - Sanford Mainers
- Vermont Drops Season Series Finale to Sanford on Friday - Vermont Mountaineers
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