Sanford Offense Dormant in Shutout Loss
July 24, 2023 - New England Collegiate Baseball League (NECBL)
Sanford Mainers News Release
SANFORD, Maine - With Wild Card implications at play, the Sanford Mainers offense chose a bad time for their offense to go quiet as they fell 3-0 to the Mystic Schooners, the team which came into the day sitting one game in front of them.
Jack Mullen (Bowdoin) got the nod on the mound for the Mainers, who were coming off the All-Star Game hiatus. Mullen ran into early trouble allowing the first three batters he faced in Sam Kirkpatrick (Belmont), Caleb Shpur (Endicott) and Jack Goodman (Pepperdine) to get on base.
The second-year Mainer, who came into the day with an 0-3 record despite a 3.68ERA, worked out of the early bases loaded trouble with back-to-back strikeouts and a pop out that did not leave the infield.
Three innings later, the bases loaded problems came back to bite the Mainers as Danny Melnick (Rutgers) started the fourth with a single before a hit-by-pitch put Caleb Stelly (Louisiana Lafayette) on base as well.
Mullen bounced back with back-to-back strikeouts before a single by J.T. Navyac (Cal St. Fullerton) loaded the bases. The righty on the bump, yielded a four pitch walk to Kirkpatrick, which drove home Melnick to open the scoring at 1-0.
Nick Thompson (Colby College) followed Mullen after five-innings of one-run baseball in which he allowed five hits and two walks while striking out five Schooners. Thompson had some bases loaded trouble of his own as Stelly reached on a single and Evin Sullivan (Binghamton) reached on a hit-by-pitch.
Devin Russell (Maryland) picked off Stelly at second base to give Thompson his first out, but then Maddix Dalena (UConn) replaced him as he worked a walk. After recording a second out via strikeout of Navyac, Thompson put Kirkpatrick on to load the bases.
Thompson got Shpur to fly out to center field to end any further threat to strand three Schooners on base for the third time in Monday's contest.
Michael Dragon (Merrimack) and Jacob Jette (UMass Lowell) each worked scoreless innings to bring the Moose up to bat trailing by one run in the bottom of the eighth.
Cal Hewett (Vanderbilt) started the inning with a single before Matt Polk (Vanderbilt) moved him to second with a sacrifice bunt. After Eddie Eisert (Virginia Tech) got on base with a walk, Devan Bade (Binghamton) replaced him on first with a fielder's choice.
Bade's fielder's choice put Hewett on third, which marked the first time a Mainer touched third base in the ballgame, but he was stranded there on a pop out to second base.
Jette went out to start the ninth and after a strikeout of Kirkpatrick he ran into trouble that started with a walk to Shpur.
Shpur came around to score and double the lead when Goodman roped a triple into right center field in the next at-bat. An at-bat later, Landon Moran (Stetson) sent a liner into the other gap, which easily brought home Mystic's third run.
Chris Gallagher (Wright State) worked two groundouts to stall the Schooners offense and bring the Mainers to bat for one last chance.
Russell reached base on a leadoff walk and Jack Toomey (Holy Cross) singled to right field, which set up runners on the corners with no outs. Jay Allmer (Seton Hall) struck out the final three Mainers to wrap up the shutout effort from three Mystic pitchers.
Sanford plays a split doubleheader against North Adams and Upper Valley tomorrow at Goodall Park. Game one, which is against the SteepleCats, begins at 4:00 p.m. and is a continuation of Friday's seven-inning game that was suspended just three pitches in. Game two is currently scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m., but it depends on the duration of the earlier contest.
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