Written by Justin Ciavolella

Director of Broadcasting & Media

Photo Courtesy of Madison Giltner Photo

SANFORD, Maine - With a chance to clinch the NECBL Championship at their home stadium for the first time in organizational history, the Sanford Mainers fell behind 7-0 to the Newport Gulls in a game that was suspended due to rain in the fifth inning on Thursday night.

Despite a combined five runners reaching base over the first two innings of play, Josh Kopetski (Rhode Island) and Cole Cheatham (UAB) posted scoreless frames to keep the offenses at bay. However, that trend did not continue in the third as Kopetski ran into trouble after recording the first out.

Niko Brini (Wofford) and Andrew Duncan (Florida State) reached first and second on a pair of one-out singles. Dixon Williams (East Carolina) then popped out to third base on the very next pitch giving Kopetski a route to get out of the inning.

Kopetski fell behind 3-1 to Tyler Minnick (Middle Tennessee State) before Newport’s designated hitter recorded a single inside the third base bag to give the Gulls a 2-0 lead.

“He battled,” Nic Lops said of Minnick. “We got the ground ball, but if it was five feet to the right, it’s an inning-ending groundball to Devan Bade (Binghamton). I was really proud of the way Kopetski battled back after that, throwing a lot of strikes.”

Two innings later, the Gulls struck again as Duncan walked to start the fifth before Minnick and Nolan Stevens (Mississippi State) reached with one out against Zachary Brassill (Southern New Hampshire).

Brassill did not stay on the bump to face the next hitter, Matthew Ossenfort (NC State), as Nic Lops elected to hand the ball to Jackson Walsh (Wheaton College). Walsh struck out Ossenfort for the second out of the inning before facing Randy Seymour (Michigan State).

Walsh got the result he needed as Seymour rolled over a ball to the shortstop Blake Schaaf (Georgetown), but a hop off the lip of the infield grass forced the ball to get past Schaaf into the outfield. With the ball in the outfield, both Duncan and Minnick came home to score.

“It’s baseball,” Lops said of the hop that ball took at shortstop. “Bad hops are part of it. We’ve got to live with it. I’ll give a lot of credit to Newport for capitalizing to make that one really sting.”

Working with a four-run lead, Greg Bozzo (Northeastern) launched a triple that one-hopped off the left-field wall to bring across another two runs in Stevens and Seymour. Bozzo’s collegiate teammate Carmelo Musacchia (Northeastern) followed with a single that scored Bozzo as the Gulls went ahead 7-0.

The Mainers, who went ahead 7-0 on Wednesday night, reacted in the bottom half of the fifth with a one-out single by Caleb Shpur (UConn) and a hit-by-pitch issued by Cheatam to Evin Sullivan (Binghamton).

That hit-by-pitch was the final pitch of the night as the game went into a lengthy delay before the game was officially suspended at 9:25 p.m.

Due to more inclement weather in the region, there is currently no information on the resumption of this series. Stay up to date on the Sanford Mainers’ social media accounts as well as sanfordmainers.com.

“I think they have enough internal motivation going on within themselves,” Lops said of keeping his group focused when restarting the contest. “It’s certainly going to be a tough test for us and we’re going to have to really dig deep. There’s still no other group I’d rather go to battle with than these guys.”

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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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