SANFORD — Will Cooper has been around baseball long enough to know that when it’s all said and done, only one thing matters.

“It’s all about the run column,” Cooper said after the Sanford Mainers dropped a 4-2 decision to the Newport Gulls in a New England Collegiate Baseball League game played Wednesday night at Goodall Park.

“Baseball is a game where you don’t always win when you have your best game. You just have to stick with it,” Cooper said. “Sometimes you win the hit column and have less errors and it doesn’t work out. All you can do is concentrate on really playing well and giving it all you’ve got.”

If the numbers game had played true to form, the Mainers (3-7) should have posted a victory against the Gulls (6-1). But that doesn’t always happen in baseball. Even though every starter in the Sanford lineup had at least one hit and the Mainers had a baserunner in every inning as part of their 11-5 advantage in the hit department, they still lost. Part of the reason was the fact that Sanford left 12 runners on base in the game.

“We got a ton of guys on base and even when we had guys on base we had some good swings but we just hit it right at them,” Cooper said. “Sometimes you swing the bat well and you just don’t score. It happens. You just have to find those clutch hits, stay patient and grind out at-bats.”

Cooper, the Mainers’ left fielder, reached base three times on two singles and a walk and scored a run. His two-out infield single in the sixth set the stage for Sanford’s only scoring inning as Jose Torralba followed with a two-run single to cut Newport’s lead to 3-2.

The Gulls got on the board first when they loaded the bases with one out in the second. A fly ball to right by Yale Rosen pushed home Brett Winger for the game’s first run as Newport jumped ahead 1-0. Sanford starter Rohn Pierce (1-1) ended the inning without any further damage when he got Robby Ort to fly out to left.

The Mainers threatened in the fourth when they loaded the bases with one out. However, Newport starter Tanner Chleborad (2-0) got out of the inning without allowing a run after Torralba popped out to short and Ino Patron grounded out to first.

“Their pitchers did a good job of scattering hits but you can’t teach clutch hitting,” said Mainers head Coach Aaron Izaryk. “You have to keep going up there with the same plan and trust the fact that whether there’s nobody on base or somebody on base you are still trying to get a hit. You have stick with the sequences and pay attention to your bat.”

Pierce found trouble in the sixth. After allowing only one hit through the first five innings he gave up a single and a double to open the frame. Winger then drew a one-out walk to load the bases and Conor Keniry hit a hot grounder to second. Torralba fielded the ball cleanly and got the runner at second, but Troy Black’s throw to first to complete the double play hit the runner and skipped away down the line. Two runs scored on the fielder’s choice and throwing error to give the Gulls a 3-0 lead.

Newport made it a 4-2 game by scoring a run off Sanford reliever Steven Rice in the eighth to complete the scoring. — Contact Mark Jeanneret at 282-1535, Ext. 323.