SANFORD — After his first outing of the season, when he gave up three runs and picked up the loss in a 4-1 defeat to Plymouth June 8, Mainers reliever Stephen Fortuna said he “just wanted to turn the page” when his second chance to take the mound came.

On Monday night, Fortuna did just that ”“ in fact, he skipped ahead to the next chapter.

With his team up 4-2 in the sixth, but with visiting New Bedford threatening to have a big inning, Fortuna entered with runners on first and third and no outs, and put the fire out, allowing just one run to score and then pitching out of another jam in the seventh.

Michael Gomez then came on to work the last two innings, pitching around leadoff singles in both to preserve the Mainers’ 4-3 victory in front of 320 fans at Goodall Park.

“My first outing, the game really sped up on me,” said Fortuna, a junior from Southern New Hampshire University. “I’d never pitched in front of a crowd that big before. Coming from a small school and everything just got into my head a little bit. (Tonight) I just came out and attacked the zone low and let my defense do the work. I knew my job was to come out and try to leave the runners where they were. In my head I was just like, ”˜Make my pitches.’”

Sanford improved to 3-4, while the Bay Sox dropped to 2-6.

“When you’re below .500 you always want to get back there as soon as possible. It was huge for us tonight,” said Sanford manager Aaron Izaryk. “It’s important to be battle-tested in this league, and big for us go out and win a one-run ballgame as 3-4 feels a lot better than 2-5.”

Fortuna’s performance was all the more important considering how crushing a loss it could have been for the Mainers, who stranded 14 runners, including six in the first three innings.

They finally broke through in the fourth, when nine-hole hitter John Howell came up with the elusive hit with a runner in scoring position as he doubled to score Jake Thomas from third to tie the game 1-1.

“I was just trying to get the ball into the outfield,” Howell said. “I got a good pitch to do that, and luckily, it finally fell in.”

Troy Black and Will Cooper followed with back-to-back infield hits, the second scoring Howell. Black was then caught stealing third for the second out, but Anthony Papio followed with a double to deep left to score Cooper and make it 3-1.

Howell was again at the center of things in the fourth, when after a two-out walk he came around to score on as Papio was issued a free pass with the bases loaded.

It was a pleasant-surprise kind of night at the plate from Howell, a strong defensive shortstop who had entered hitting just .059.

“I talked to Johnny before the game and said, ”˜You’ve got to be our everyday shortstop and make some plays, and whatever you hit is great for me,’” Izaryk said. “And I think that took a huge load off, and he just went up there and tried to do what he could do.”

Left-hander Nick Poore made his first start of the season for Sanford and picked up the win, giving up three hits and one unearned run in five innings of work, striking out two and walking one.

“I just love his poise. He pounds the zone, and he’s got a great breaking ball and a good change that he likes to throw,” said Izaryk of Poore, who was primarily used out of the bullpen at Boston College this spring. “He’s ready, and I think ready to compete for a starting job.”

After Poore was taken out after just 64 pitches as he continues to work up to starter’s strength, Tim Duggan came out of the bullpen and gave up three straight singles to the Bay Sox to make it 4-2.

That’s when Izaryk made the call for Fortuna, who sandwiched a pair of pop outs around a run-scoring groundout to get Sanford out of the inning before pitching around a leadoff double in the seventh to hand things off to Gomez, who picked up his second save of the season.

“I thought he did a great job of pounding the zone, getting ahead and staying ahead. He did a huge job for us tonight,” Izaryk said. “He can understand how good he can be just by throwing strikes. He can be really, really good for us and fill that role.”

The Mainers are in action on Tuesday when they travel to Keene, N.H., to take on the Swamp Bats, and will be back at Goodall on 6:30 p.m. Wednesday when they take on Danbury.

Moose Tracks: Former Scarborough High School star Joe Cronin, a sophomore at Boston College, went 1-for-3 for the Bay Sox ”¦ After going 3-for-5 Monday, Black is second in the NECBL with a .458 average and third in hits with 11 ”¦ Evan Hill is expected to take the hill tonight for Sanford against Keene. Hill gave up three runs in 2.2 innings of work in his first start of the season June 12, an 8-5 loss to Mystic.

— Staff Writer Cameron Dunbar can be contacted at 282-1535, Ext. 323.