Mainers stumble 8-4 to Laconia

SANFORD — Even a first place team can’t win every game.

That saying can be applied to the Sanford Mainers, who lost 8-4 on Wednesday night to the Laconia Muskrats before a crowd of 429 at Goodall Park.

The Mainers record moves to 9-5 on the season, and remain in first place in the NECBL Eastern Division, two games above the New Bedford Bay Sox.

The game was a rough outing for the Sanford pitching staff, who entered the contest with a sub-.200 opponent batting average. and a 2.70 E.R.A, third best in the league. Mainers starter Kyle Helisek gave up four runs (three earned) in five innings of work, while the Sanford bullpen, Ben Burmeister, Dave Ahern and Lucas Ellex combined to give up four runs in over three innings of relief. Tom McDermott pitched the lone scoreless inning out of the pitchers who worked in the contest.

The Mainers trailed the entire ballgame, but pushed for a late rally in the ninth, scoring a run on a Matt Marra single to make the score 8-4, before Muskrats reliever Evan Marzilli struck out two batters in a row to finish the ballgame.

“I have confidence in the pitching staff,” Sanford manager Aaron Izaryk said. “I just told the guys, we’re not going to give up eight runs a game. We can chill out about that, and leave that one at the ballpark today. We’re going to come back tomorrow. We’re not only going to score four [runs]. We’re going to score more than that, we’re going to produce better than that, we’re going to take better swings the first time through the lineup. I thought we punched out too much early in the game, and I thought we made better adjustments offensively.”

Joe Wendle and Doug Eliot had the best offensive outings for Sanford, each going 2 for 4, with Wendle collecting his team-leading 10th RBI of the season.

Laconia starter Tyler Joyner made life difficult for the Mainers, striking out six batters in over five innings of work. The Mainers were able to get to Joyner late, tagging nine hits off him before being taken out.

“He came out early with a devastating breaking ball,” Izaryk said. “When we get two strikes, we’re always thinking breaking balls, so he would get his fastball by us and we’d swing and miss at his breaking ball. Once we started seeing some pitches and settling in, that’s when he started losing his breaking ball, and that’s when they had to take him out.”

The Mainers hit the road for a game with the Holyoke Blue Sox tonight, before returning for a Friday night contest with the Keene Swamp Bats.

SHORT HOPS:

Mainers outfielder Jim Schult went 1 for 5 on Wednesday night, and now has a hit in 13 of the Mainers 14 games this season, giving him a team-high .368 batting average, the fourth best in the league”¦

Sanford first baseman and former Deering High School star Regan Flaherty went 1 for 4 at the plate, collecting his first RBI of the season on a bloop base hit in the sixth inning”¦

Flaherty’s college teammate, touted Vanderbilt shortstop Anthony Gomez, made his first appearance for the Mainers on Wednesday, coming in as a pinch hitter in the sixth inning. In two plate appearances, Gomez went 0 for 1, with a walk and a run scored. Gomez led Vanderbilt as a freshman with a .388 batting average, and was an All-SEC first team selection.