Sanford Saddles Westerners
June 17, 2024 - New England Collegiate Baseball League (NECBL)
Sanford Mainers News Release
SANFORD, Maine - If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
For the second consecutive night, the Sanford Mainers found success on the mound and backed it up with timely hits in a 3-0 shutout victory, this time versus the Danbury Westerners on Monday night.
Following a combined shutout effort by Colton Trisch (George Washington), Chris Gallagher (Purdue) and Conner Griffin (Binghamton), manager Nic Lops turned to Ryan Minckler (Niagara) to keep the momentum rolling.
Minckler did just that, starting the game with a 1-2-3 inning against the visiting Westerners. The New Hampshire native set the tone with his fastball-slider combination that led to a strikeout of Dante D'Amore (Sacred Heart).
"He's going to be a good guy to roll out there every fifth or sixth day," Lops said following Minckler's first appearance of the summer on Monday night. "He knows how to pitch. He's got the definition of a firm fastball ringing it up to 95 [mile per hour], but then he can with that filthy slider and has the confidence in his changeup."
Just like one day prior in Upper Valley, the Mainers used their first chance at the plate to put a tally on the scoreboard.
Anthony Leak (Dominican) got the first two outs in the home portion of the first inning on just seven pitches, although those outs came at 99 mph and 101 mph off the bats of Jared Davis (Virginia Tech) and C.J. Willis (Quinnipiac).
With two outs in the inning, Leak hit Devan Bade (Binghamton) with a pitch before yielding a two-out single to Corbin Lanowitz (UNC Asheville).
In a similar fashion to how they got on the board first in their last home game against Keene on Saturday, Ray Velazquez (Vanderbilt) drove a ball to deep left field. Unlike the ball he hit against the Swampbats, this one stayed in the yard, but it still got to the wall and allowed Bade to score for the first run of the game.
Minckler returned to the mound in the second inning and kept cruising. Although he allowed a one-out walk to Drew Wyers (Manhattan), the rising redshirt junior racked up two strikeouts, which were both of the swinging variety, to up his total to three.
As the bats went quiet on the Sanford side, Minckler continued to deal in the third, fourth and fifth innings. The right-handed pitcher threw three up, three down innings in both the third and fourth before allowing a single to Ryan Preisano (Wake Forest), who was left stranded on base, in his fifth and final inning of work.
Minckler left the mound in the fifth inning in position for the victory after five innings of two-hit, six-strikeout baseball while allowing just one walk.
Before Minckler's replacement got to the hill for the sixth, Sanford put another run on the board.
Davis and Willis, who both had lasers off their bat and found gloves in their earlier at-bats, singled and doubled to start the fifth. With the two of them in scoring position, Bade flew a ball out to left field that was deep enough for Davis to score the Mainers second run.
"One thing we track is quality at-bats and we managed to get 24 of those tonight," Lops said of his team's offensive performance. "10 hits and six free passes between hit-by-pitches and walks is going to give you a good chance to win a lot of ball games."
That offense struck for another tally in the sixth inning as Matt Miceli (Stony Brook) worked one of those six free passes coming by way of a one-out walk. Davis followed him with a walk of his own to bring up the team leader in RBI in Willis.
Willis, who started his night off 0-2, scorched a worm burner to left field that scored Miceli for the third and final run of the night.
Daniel McAliney (Binghamton) entered the game in the top of the seventh inning after Cole Schiff (UNC Asheville) set the Westerners down in 1-2-3 fashion in his first appearance of the summer in the sixth inning.
McAliney worked two scoreless frames in the seventh and eighth to keep the shutout intact going into the ninth. Aidan Colagrande (Fairfield) entered in the save opportunity and struck out three of the five batters he faced en route to completing the second shutout in as many days.
"Incredible," Lops said of his bullpen today. "Cole Schiff, it was nice to see his first appearance of the summer. [Daniel McAliney] was really locked into it, he was sharp. Colagrande was too shutting the door."
Sanford's shutout streak dates back to Jackson Walsh's (Wheaton) two-out save on Saturday night against Keene. The Mainers look to keep their recipe going tomorrow at Goodall Park against the Valley Blue Sox.
"We've got to keep our focus," the 2022 Joel Cooney Manager of the Year said. "Take it one day at a time, one game at a time, one batter at a time, one out at a time and one pitch at a time."
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New England Collegiate Baseball League Stories from June 17, 2024
- Sanford Saddles Westerners - Sanford Mainers
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