The SwampBats hit two grand slams and got their longest start of the season from a pitcher as they drubbed the Sanford Mainers 15-4 on Tuesday night at home in front of a huge crowd.

Jake Koonin (Princeton) continued his stellar season with his league-leading thirteenth home run of the season in the first inning, a solo shot over the scoreboard in right-center field to give the SwampBats a 1-0 lead. In the second, Austin Hawke (Wake Forest) and David Mendez (Vanderbilt) led off with back-to-back singles and TJ Schuyler (Indiana) drew a one-out walk to load the bases. All-star outfielder Joe Jaconski (Penn State), who missed the previous four games with an injury, belted a grand slam to straightaway center, giving the SwampBats an emphatic 5-0 lead. Skip Shenosky (Penn State) struck out the side in the third and faced the minimum through three innings in his final game of the season. Sanford, who came into the game on a league record-tying 11-game win streak, got on the board with a solo home run to begin the fourth. The next batter roped a base hit down the left field line and tried to stretch it into a double, but Koonin made a perfect throw to Hawke to nab him at second base.

In the fifth, it was Jake Millan’s (Florida Atlantic) turn to pile on. He drilled his first home run of the season out to right field to make it 6-1 Keene. The SwampBats turned their second double play in the sixth, helping Shenosky get 18 outs through the first 21 batters. In the bottom of the sixth, Andrew Wiggins (Indiana) and Schuyler drew back to back walks, and Jaconski was hit by a pitch after a pitching change. Nick Romano (Florida Atlantic) came up next and hit his second grand slam of the season against the Mainers, a line drive deposited into center field. The impassioned crowd of 2375 SwampBats fans gushed as their team took a 10-1 lead. Sanford got a run back on a wild pitch in the seventh but Shenosky finished with two runs, six hits, and two walks allowed over seven stellar innings, the longest outing by a SwampBat this season as he left it all on the mound. He struck out six. 

The SwampBats’ party continued in the seventh inning. Mendez hit a leadoff single, and Wiggins replaced him after a fielder’s choice. Schuyler doubled down the left field line, scoring Wiggins. Romano then singled home Schuyler, and Koonin walked. Millan came up with the bases loaded, and hit a two-run single to left, capping off the rally and making it 14-2. Nick Guidas (Kent State) pitched a one-two-three eighth. Romano picked up his sixth RBI of the night with a groundout in the bottom of the eighth to make it 15-2. Sanford hit a two-run home run with two outs in the ninth, but the crowd cheered as a flyout to center ended the regular season on a high note.

The SwampBats finish the regular season 26-18. They are the fifth seed in the playoffs and will play the fourth-seeded Mainers in a best-of-three series for a spot in the semifinals. Game 1 is on Thursday, August 1st in Sanford, Maine at 6:35 pm. Game 2 is at Alumni Field on Friday at 6:35 pm. Game 3 if necessary will be at the same time on Saturday in Sanford. If the SwampBats win the series, they would play an opponent to be determined in a best-of-three series beginning on Sunday, August 4th.