Talons Touch Down For Two Against Mainers
June 13, 2024 - New England Collegiate Baseball League (NECBL)
Sanford Mainers News Release
Sanford Mainers' Clay Robbins on the mound
(, Credit: Madison Giltner Photography)
SANFORD, Maine - It was a tale of two nearly identical games at Goodall Park on Thursday afternoon as the Sanford Mainers were swept in a doubleheader by the visiting Upper Valley Nighthawks in games that finished in 6-1 and 4-2 fashion.
Upper Valley got on the board first in the first game of the day, which served as the makeup game after a postponement last Friday night.
Luke Zeisloft (Maryland) opened the bottom of the third inning by bouncing a ball to the shortstop Matt Miceli (Stony Brook). Zeisloft advanced to third as the next batter, Chris Worcester (Eastern Illinois), recorded Upper Valley's first hit of the day.
With Zeisloft and Worcester on base, Bryce Blaser (Louisiana Monroe) bounced a ball that was fumbled by Matt Travisano (UMass Amherst) at second base. That error, which was the third of the day for a team that entered near the top of the league with a .964 fielding percentage.
Travisano made up for that error though in the bottom of the third. After a two-out walk to C.J. Willis (Quinnipiac) and a two-out hit-by-pitch of Jack Toomey (Holy Cross), Travisano delivered a hard-hit single to left field that brought Willis around for his first RBI of the season.
Sanford threatened for more in the inning as Nathan Barksdale (Austin Peay) reached on a base on balls, but the Mainers stranded three on base as Keaton Cottom (Austin Peay) bounced into an inning-ending fielder's choice.
Following a 1-2-3 inning by Clay Robbins (Southern Maine), the Mainers loaded the bases again with two out in the bottom of the fourth.
Jared Davis (Virginia Tech) reached on a hit-by-pitch before Devan Bade (Binghamton) and Willis reached on walks. With Davis, Bade and Willis on the basepaths, Toomey struck out swinging against Matt Zguro (Iona).
Zguro worked around trouble in his second inning of work as well after Robbins worked another quick inning in the top of the fifth.
Zguro yielded a leadoff single to Travisno before a two-out walk to Corbin Lanowitz (UNC Asheville), who was pinch-hitting for Jackson Curtis (Husson), put two runners on base for the third consecutive inning.
With a chance to give Sanford its first lead of the afternoon, Miceli grounded out to Michael Trommer (Bucknell) to end the frame.
It was not long before Trommer hurt the Mainers again as with one out in the sixth, the Pennsylvania native delivered the Nighthawks' second hit of the game by way of a double. Trommer moved up 90 feet as Gehrig Frei (Mississippi State) grounded out to Travisano at second base for the second out.
Frei's groundout not only moved the runner to third base but also ended the day for Robbins on the mound.
The left-handed starter was replaced by Chris Gallagher (Purdue) following 5.2 innings of two-hit, seven-strikeout baseball. Robbins' line was not finalized with Trommer leading off third base.
Trommer came around to score as the first hitter to greet Gallagher out of the bullpen, D.J. Pacheco (Richmond), doubled to give Upper Valley a 2-1 advantage.
Chris Baillargeon (Holy Cross) hit the visitors' third double of the inning following a two-out walk to Cole Fellows (Columbia). Baillargeon's two-base hit allowed both Pacheco and Fellows to reach home plate as Upper Valley opened a three-run lead.
One inning later, after Sanford stranded three runners on base for the third time in the contest, Upper Valley capitalized on a leadoff single by Zeisloft. Zeisloft moved to second base on a groundout by Worcester.
Aidan Colagrande (Fairfield) struck out Blaser before Trommer wreaked havoc again with an RBI single that scored Zeisloft. Trommer came around to score one at-bat later as Frei laced a triple into the outfield to put Upper Valley ahead 6-1.
Miceli worked a two-out walk in the seventh, but Davis popped out to end the game, stranding the 15th Mainer on base in the contest, nine of which were in scoring position.
The first run of game two came much quicker for Upper Valley as in the first inning Trommer reached on an uncaught third strike. Two batters later, Trommer, who advanced to second on a wild pitch by Ryan Douglas (Stonehill) and to third on a groundout by Frei, came around to score as Pacheco singled.
In similar fashion to game one, the Mainers did not allow Upper Valley to hold the lead for very long as they struck back in the next half-inning.
Davis opened the game on an 89 miles per hour single. The Florida native stole second base to put himself into scoring position. That stolen base was Davis' second of the day and ninth on the season, and it would not be his last on the day.
Toomey, who gave Sanford the lead on a two-run double in Keene on Wednesday night, drove in Davis two batters later with that landed in front of Pacheco in left field.
Douglas and Dylan McCarthy (George Mason) traded scoreless half-innings in the second to keep the score at 1-1. Douglas got the best of the Upper Valley hitters in the third, but McCarthy did not have the same success in the bottom half of the frame.
Davis opened the inning with a single before stealing second base in Blake Schaaf's (Georgetown) second plate appearance. Schaaf's second turn to the plate ended with the 12th base on balls worked by Mainer hitters on the day.
Davis and Schaaf took off on a double steal during Toomey's sixth plate appearance of the entire afternoon. Davis' successful steal was his third of the game, fourth of the day and his league-leading 11th of the season.
Toomey, who was one of two Mainers to start both ends of the doubleheader, worked Sanford's 13th walk of the afternoon with his third walk of the day.
With the bases loaded, Ray Velazquez (Vanderbilt) popped out to the shortstop in Worcester as McCarthy tried to strand the bases loaded. However, on the next pitch, McCarthy failed to do just that as Lanowitz lifted a ball to center field that was caught by Blaser but brought Davis home from third.
That 2-1 score held until the sixth inning as Douglas and Andrelys Payamps (Iona), who came into the game in relief of McCarthy after three innings, held the offenses quiet.
Douglas, who lasted just three innings in his first starter of the season against Valley, returned to the mound for a sixth inning and allowed a leadoff single to Trommer on the first pitch of the inning.
The Stonehill College right-handed pitcher bounced back with a strikeout of Frei before hitting Pacheco with a pitch. That hit-by-pitch ended Douglas' night after 5.1 innings of three-hit, nine-strikeout baseball, yet just like Robbins in game one, his line was not finalized.
Conner Griffin (Binghamton) came into the game in relief and the second pitch he threw ended as a ground ball to Velazquez at first base. The ball took a tough hop off the lip of the infield grass and ended up in right field allowing Trommer to score the game-tying run.
Griffin struck out Baillargeon for the second out of the inning, but the third did not come as easily.
Ethan Lizama (Western Kentucky) singled and brought both Pacheco and Fellows, who reached on the error, around to score, giving Upper Valley a 4-1 lead.
That lead held up as the Mainers put base runners on base in both the sixth and seventh innings but could not get anything going.
Sanford has the day off on Friday before returning to action against the Keene SwampBats on Saturday evening at Goodall Park.
Images from this story
 Sanford Mainers' Clay Robbins on the mound (Madison Giltner Photography) |
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New England Collegiate Baseball League Stories from June 13, 2024
- Talons Touch Down For Two Against Mainers - Sanford Mainers
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