LACONIA — The Mainers would drop their third straight on the road, losing in the final frame of the ballgame to Winnipesaukee 7-6. Carmine Pagano would pick up his first home run in a Mainer uniform, as the team would drop to 2-8 on the season.

Mainers starter Stephen Arntsen would get the start on the mound, going four innings and giving up five runs on nine hits. As the game seemed to be off to an extremely rocky start, the Moose would battle back in the middle of the game. 

Scoring would start in the top of the fourth for Sanford, as Jimmy Kerr (Ann Arbor, MI) would draw a one-out walk. Two pitches later, Connor Aube (Falmouth, ME) would one-hop the fence in left-center field that would score Kerr from first. 

After Aube was thrown out trying for a triple, the visiting team would only muster a run in the fourth but would bat around the order in the fifth. Carmine Pagano would hit his first bomb of the year, and after Ryland Kerr (Bellevue, WA) was retired, the next four Mainers would all reach aboard safely and come around to score. The Mainers would regain take their first lead in three games after Bryan Sturges (Katy, TX) hit an RBI double and would score on a fielder’s choice from Jimmy Kerr. 

The Moose would threaten with runners on second and third in the eighth, but would be unable to put any security runs on the board. Winnipesaukee would take the lead in the bottom half of the frame and would put Sanford down 1-2-3 in the top of the ninth.

A season-high 13 hits would be recorded for the Mainers in the loss, with a multi-hit coming from Pagano, Aube, Sturges, Ryan Hogan (Kingston, PA). 

The Mainers would also field the ball well in the game, with two outfield assists at the plate from Connor Aube and Ryan Hogan. 

Since 1871, there have only been unassisted 14 double-plays by the catcher in the MLB in a suicide squeeze scenario. Sunday night saw another, as Bryan Sturges would tag out two runners in the same play. After a botched suicide squeeze by the Muskrats, Sturges had a runner caught between third and home. After running down the Muskrat to third, the runner from second tried to take third base, knowing his teammate would eventually be tagged out. As Sturges applied the first tag, the runner from second was within range of the catcher’s glove and would be tagged out for the third out of the inning. 

The Mainers will travel to Upper Valley today to take on the Nighthawks.