LYNN, Mass.  — One pitch. One hit. Sometimes that’s all it takes to win a baseball game. It can also be the factor that makes or breaks a playoff series.

The Sanford Mainers experienced such an event on Monday night, when they dropped Game 1 of the NECBL quarterfinal round to the North Shore Navigators by a score of 1-0.

Sanford starting pitcher Shane Davis would only give up one hit, but it was all North Shore needed for victory, as opposing starter Crayton Bare pitched a five hit shutout for the win.

The series will head to Goodall Park in Sanford for Game 2 tonight at 6:30 p.m., with the Mainers only one loss away from elimination from the playoffs.

“It was one hit too many that I gave up, I guess,” Davis said. “Our offense will come around, they’ve done well all season.  One game’s over, now we just have to win two games in a row.”

The Navigators took the 1-0 lead in the first inning. North Shore centerfielder and leadoff hitter Braxton Graven rocked a Davis fastball into the right field gap for a triple, and was plated moments later by shortstop Cody Dent [son of Bucky “Bleeping” Dent of Red Sox and Yankees fame]. 

“You’ve got to keep your focus all the time,” Davis said. “You can’t get relaxed at all, and maybe I felt a little too relaxed with that first hitter, missed my spot, he hit a triple and I tip my cap to him and that seemed to be the end of the ballgame right there.”

The triple was the lone hit against Davis, as he would retire the next 15 hitters in a row, four by strikeout.

“One hitter in the game doesn’t decide a game,” Sanford manager Aaron Izaryk said. “Unless it’s the last hitter that hits a home run, and even in that situation, you have 26 outs to work with before that. We could do some things better, but we played a good game today. We played all three facets of the game well. Shane pitched a good game. Obviously the one hit ended up being the hit that wins the game, but you can’t ask much more from your pitcher. “

Davis finished the contest with eight innings of work, with five strikeouts and only one walk. He said there wasn’t much that changed from the first hitter on.

“I didn’t try to do too much, I usually try to think as little as possible out there, just hit my spots and throw my pitches,” Davis said. “Our catcher did a good job tonight. I didn’t have to shake him off all night.”

However,  Bare was just as effective through the first four innings of play, giving up two singles, while striking out three batters. Bare finished the contest with five strikeouts and no walks.

Offensively, the Mainers had missed opportunities. Sanford right fielder Pat Cantwell successfully stole second base in the fourth inning, but was tagged out after picking up his hand. The Mainers were able to collect back-to-back singles from Doug Eliot and Anthony Gomez with one out in the fifth, but Matt Marra flew out to right field and Jim Schult hit into a fielder’s choice to end the inning.  Brett Mollenhaur had a base hit for the Mainers in the sixth inning, but was promptly picked off at first base by Bare.

By the end of the sixth inning, the Mainers had a 5-1 advantage over the Navigators, but still trailed 1-0. They would never get another chance to score.

The Mainers tried to get to Bare by swinging aggressively in the count, which Izaryk said was necessary due to Bare’s command of the strike zone.

“I think [Bare] was throwing strikes,” Izaryk said. “If we’re not swinging through and we’re hitting weak ground balls, then it would be a different outcome. But because he was throwing his changeup well, his breaking ball well, the last time we faced him his breaking ball and his changeup weren’t there, we beat him the last time out. He throws a lot of guys out, so you have to swing early or you’ll be in a lot of two-strike counts. If you want a chance to win against him, you’ve got to be ready to hit.”

Izaryk said he didn’t need to give his team much of a motivational speech after the game.

“I told the guys if we play that game 10 more times, we’ll win 10 more times,” Izaryk said. “This is that [one] out of 10 games where you lose it because we played well and we lost. We played our tails off tonight. It’s a shame to not see Shane or our guys get rewarded for that, but tomorrow’s another day, and Dustin [Ramey] can go out and do the same thing to them. If he pitches his game, we have a shot to win tomorrow.”

SHORT HOPS: The game was played before a crowd of 691 at Fraser Field on Monday night. The Mainers have had two of their most attended games this season in the past two games at Goodall Park, with a record breaking crowd of 835 on July 31.

With both pitchers having impressive outings, the game time was very short. The contest started at 6:18 p.m. and finished at 7:40 p.m., a total of only one hour and 22 minutes of play.

North Shore outfielder Dario Pizzano robbed Sanford first baseman Michael Roth of a hit with a stretch grab on a liner in the fifth inning.

Dustin Ramey [3-2, 1.82 E.R.A] is tabbed to start on the mound for Game 2 for Sanford, while the Navigators will start Kevin Kyle [1-1, 2.12 E.R.A]

— Contact Dave Dyer at 282-1535 ext. 318.