SANFORD — Being in the midst of a losing streak is not where a team wants to be heading into a playoff push. The Sanford Mainers find themselves in that situation as they push to make the playoffs in the NECBL. With the Upper Valley Nighthawks also vying for that coveted third seed, Tuesday night’s game had a lot of implications.
The Nighthawks would pick up the crucial victory as they earned a 5-2 win at Goodall Park.
In the top of the first, the visiting Nighthawks rattled off three runs. After that, runs were hard to get.
It seemed every inning, there were runners left on base. The defensive effort of both teams was evident. The score remained 3-0 until the fourth inning.
In the bottom of the fourth, the Mainers looked to mount a comeback. Jonathan White was able to get a lead off single. Nick Howie then blasted one to the warning track in right to advance White to third. White would come in courtesy of a Shane Marshall single. The Nighthawk lead had now shrunk to just two runs with Howie on second, but the Mainers would hit into a 4-6-3 double play to end the inning. The score stuck at 3-1 in favor of the Nighthawks.
The drought of runs continued for both teams. In the top of the fifth, catcher Josh Zbierski gave the Mainers crowd something to cheer about with a gutsy gundown to second. Then in the bottom of inning, Zbierski would make great contact, but the Nighthawks were all over it.
“I thought we played really good defensively and they just got a couple extra hits that we didn’t get,” said Mainers coach Chris Morris.
The Mainers defense continued to shine with the play of Carmine Pagano and Josh Zbierski — but the bats just needed to wake up.
In the bottom of the seventh, Pagano answered with a much-needed hit that would score Howie to make the score 3-2. Morris had a lot to say about his returning shortstop.
“Carmine’s been battling. He is a guy we look to lead to club a little bit and he is doing just that,” said Morris.
The Nighthawks would respond with runs of their own in the eighth off the hot bat of Ty Adcock, who finished the game 4-for-4 with two doubles. Hardison would get a single to score Adcock on the next at bat.
“I thought we played really good defensively and they just got a couple extra hits that we didn’t get,” said Morris. “They hit two balls right on the line — that’s baseball.”
A questionable interference call would then hurt the Mainers chance at a rally in the bottom of the eighth. In the ninth, Hardison would collect another RBI single with the bases loaded to seal the victory at 5-2.
As the Mainers look to crawl out of this losing skid, Morris sees a lot of positives from it.
“I thought we played really well. I still like right where we are at,” said Morris. “Obviously, we are in a little bit of a losing streak, but we have played good baseball in that losing streak.”
The Mainers are still vying for that playoff spot, but the experience is what matters for the players.
If you can keep putting them in these spots to win baseball games, that is what you ask for with summer baseball and we are going to keep doing that,” said Morris.
The Mainers next game is Thursday at 6:30 p.m. against the Mystic Schooners at Goodall Park.