Hartford, VT – The Sanford Mainers came up with one of their biggest wins of the season on Monday night as they exercised some two-out hitting demons and put up three runs in the top half of the 9th inning to take sole control of 2nd place in the Northern Division with a crazy finish to their week coming up.  The Moose exercised some hitting demons as they put up a double digit hit total for just the first time since July 12th. 
Sanford didn’t waste a moment as they took the field for just the second time since last Tuesday and struck first for the second straight time.  After Jonathan White (Lawrenceville, Ga./Presbyterian) singled, the first of five times he would reach base on the night, Nick Howie (Oakville, Ontario, Canada/Eastern Kentucky) stepped up yet again for the Moose as he stayed hot and got the RBI base hit that brought home White to give the Moose a 1-0 lead after the 1st.
The Moose picked up another in the top of the 2nd as Shane Marshall (Webster, N.Y./Binghamton) led off the inning with his first of four hits on the night and was brought around to score on the RBI base hit off the bat of Brandon Lankford (Mocksville, N.C./UNC-Asheville) to give the Mainers a 2-0 lead after two frames.
For the third straight inning, Sanford put another run on the board as once again, White reached based to lead off the inning and Nick Howie smacked his second RBI hit of the night to right center field to give the Mainers an early 3-0 lead.  Howie and White were huge parts of the win on Monday for the Moose as Howie picked up three RBIs and White scored on four of the five occasions he got on base.
After the Nighthawks were able to get one of those runs back in the bottom half of the 3rd, with two outs in the top of the 4th Johnny Rizer (Cypress, Texas/Texas Christian University) crushed his team-leading 6th home run deep into the Hartford, Vermont night to put the Mainers on top 5-1.
Although the Nighthawks would get two more back in the bottom of the 6th, Matt Dockman (Hilliard, Ohio/Duke) turned in a fantastic start through his first five innings of work in just his 4th start this summer.  Through those five innings he allowed just one earned run on three hits as he struck out four along the way.  With the runs in the 6th, however, Upper Valley cut the Mainers’ lead to just 5-3.
Upper Valley came up big with two outs, again, in the bottom of the 7th as they were able to plate two more and tie the game up at five, as one of the biggest games of the week went into the final two frames.
Mike Vasturia (Medford, N.J./Maryland) continued his impressive summer out of the pen for the Mainers as he got the Moose out of a jam to keep the game tied in the bottom of the 7th and allowed just two hits in the 8th but kept it tied to give Sanford a chance in the 9th, a chance they wouldn’t squander.
Carmine Pagano (McLeansville, N.C./UNC-Asheville) started the rally off with a single and after back to back walks to White and Rizer, the bases were loaded for Nick Howie.  The Eastern Kentucky Colonel laced one down the left field line that was gloved by the third baseman, but Howie was able to beat out the throw at first as Pagano crossed the plate as the go-ahead run.  Shane Marshall was next up and put one into right center field for his fourth hit on the night that brought home White to give the Mainers a two-run lead.  The Moose weren’t done just yet as Conner Shepherd (Upland, Calif./Texas Christian University) laced a ball to the outfield that brought Howie around from second base and gave the Mainers an 8-5 lead into the bottom of the 9th.
Jake Dexter (Oakland, Maine/Southern Maine) took the bump for the Mainers to try and close out a huge win for the Moose to start a wild week on the diamond.  He made an impressive play to get the first out of the inning after going to both knees to stop a ball hit back at him.  The second out was equally impressive, but this time it was Jonathan White flashing the leather at second base as a ball was hit into the right center field grass but a slide and a beautiful through across his body made it two outs.  A third straight ground ball put out gave Dexter his second save on the year, but more importantly, sealed the victory for the Mainers.
Sanford heads home for a doubleheader on Tuesday in which they will play two nine inning games against two different opponents starting at 3 PM against the New Bedford Bay Sox.  You can catch every minute of the action on the NECBL Broadcast Network as Mike Glennon will have the call for what should be a fun and important day of baseball.  As always, head on over to www.sanfordmainers.com to catch up on anything you may have missed to get set for a wild race to the finish line of the 2018 NECBL season.