Written by Justin Ciavolella

Director of Broadcasting & Media

Photo Courtesy of Madison Giltner Photo

KEENE, N.H. - Heading into Tuesday evening, only two teams in the NECBL knew their first-round playoff matchup. On Tuesday evening, those two teams met for the eighth and final time in the 2024 regular season with the Keene SwampBats finding success in a 15-4 win over the Sanford Mainers at Alumni Field.

The SwampBats set the tone early with the first of their four home runs coming from their three-hole hitter, Jake Koonin (Princeton), smoking a ball to straight-away center field. Koonin’s home run was his league-leading 13th home run of the season.

An inning later, Joe Jaconski (Penn State) quadrupled Koonin’s solo home run with a grand slam that scored Austin Hawke (Wake Forest), David Mendez (Vanderbilt) and T.J. Schuyler (Indiana), who had all reached from spots in the bottom half of Keene’s lineup.

“They were getting the barrel to the ball,” associate head coach Tim Moreau said of Keene’s offensive efforts. “We either left pitches right down the middle or just enough that they could get a good barrel out to it to get it out of the yard.”

After Ben Shenosky (Penn State) and Conner Griffin (Binghamton) combined for six strikeouts over a scoreless third inning, the Mainers got on the board quickly in the top of the fourth. Caleb Shpur (UConn) joined the home run parade on the second pitch of the visitor’s portion.

Shpur’s, which cut Sanford’s deficit to four runs, was his first of the summer and was followed by a single by Jackson Tucker (St. John’s). Tucker, who recorded Sanford’s third hit of the game, was not able to stay on base, however, as Koonin threw him out at second base trying to extend his single into a double.

Two innings after Sanford’s home run, the SwampBats matched with another one in the fifth as Jake Millan (Florida Atlantic) left the park. In similar fashion to Shpur’s long ball, Millan’s was his first of the season and departed the confines of Alumni Field over the center-field wall.

An inning later, the three free passes led to Keene having the bases loaded for the second time in the contest. Like the first time the bases were juiced for the SwampBats, they quickly were unloaded as Nicholas Romano (Florida Atlantic) hit the home team’s second grand slam of the game.

Romano’s grand slam gave the SwampBats four more runs of cushion as it increased their lead to 10-1. Not long after the score became 10-1, Sanford put another run on the board after Corbin Lanowitz (UNC Asheville) reached on a one-out walk in the seventh.

After Evin Sullivan (Binghamton) doubled to put two runners in scoring position, a wild pitch thrown by Shenosky allowed Lanowitz to score the Mainers’ second run of the game. Sullivan was left stranded at third as Keene’s starter finished his seventh, and final inning of work.

“Today was a day that bats were a little dead,” Moreau said of Sanford’s four-run performance. “We’ll come back to it starting in two days. Two days and we’ll be back to playing Moose baseball.”

Following Shenosky’s departure from the mound for the final time this summer, the SwampBats put another four-spot on the board in the eighth. Keene’s third four-run inning of the game did not come by way of a grand slam, but rather the SwampBats used a run-scoring double by Schuyler, a run-scoring single by Romano and a two-run single by Millan to make it a 14-2 ballgame.

Keene added another run in the eighth inning before Sullivan delivered a two-run home run home run in the top of the ninth. Sanford’s second home run of the night was Sullivan’s first of the season and made it a 15-4 score.

Sanford and Keene both have the day off on Wednesday, the league-wide makeup date, before returning to action against each other to begin a best-of-three series on Thursday at Goodall Park. First pitch of the 2024 NECBL Postseason for the SwampBats and Mainers is scheduled for 6:30 p.m.

“I told them it’s time for a reset,” Moreau said of his message to the team after the game. “Take some time off, relax, have a little bit of fun, but when it comes to Thursday, be ready to pound and play good baseball.”

Sanford Mainers Game Recap Fueled by Aroma Joe's.

About the Sanford Mainers:
Sanford Mainers Baseball is Southern Maine's Premier Baseball Experience located in Sanford, Maine and is one of 13 members of the New England Collegiate Baseball League, as well as a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded in 2001, playing its first season in 2002. The Sanford Mainers are committed to providing an outlet for collegiate baseball players from across the country to assist in skill development, while also acting as a community partner to the Southern Maine region in regard to youth activities, internships, volunteerism, and more. The Mainers are two-time league champions, taking home the title in 2004 and 2008. For more information on the Sanford Mainers, please visit our website at www.sanfordmainers.com or follow on Facebook at facebook.com/sanfordmainers or on Twitter and Instagram at @sanford_mainers.

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