Game 31 Recap: Mainers 7, Mountaineers 6

Vermont's Joe Tietjen slides safely into home plate during the first inning. /TA Photo

In an as back-and-forth a game as you can imagine, the visiting Sanford Mainers came out on top against the Vermont Mountaineers.

Sanford designated hitter Jordan Powell’s RBI single with one out in the 11th inning lifted Mainers to a 7-6 win in extras on Wednesday night.

Powell’s clutch hit off reliever Sean Callahan gave Sanford it’s sixth win in seven days as the Mainers handed Vermont a second straight loss at home. The Mountaineers led 5-2 through four innings, but a resilient Sanford dug in.

Sanford reliever Joe Orlando gave up the game-tying run in the eighth inning, but followed with three scoreless frames. After a runner reached in the bottom of the 11th, Sanford’s Dalton Curtis closed the door on Vermont’s comeback bid when pinch-hitter Troy Scocca came to bat with runners on first and second and two outs before grounding out to short on the first pitch he saw.

A fielding error in the 11th inning allowed the game-winning run to reach base, represented by Zach Jancarski. He moved all the way to third on Nelson Mompierre’s long single. Mompierre was just feet shy of a two-run home run, settling for a long base hit off the wall in right.

The loss dropped Vermont to 14-17 as the team enters a brutal five-game Southern Division road stretch, starting with a doubleheader against Plymouth tonight. Scheduled as a pair of seven-inning games, first pitches are coming at 4:30 and 6:30 p.m.

Vermont starter Joe Rocchietti was in line for his first win of the season on Wednesday, holding the Mainers to two runs in five innings. He scattered 10 hits, walked none and struck out three. He escaped several jams in his fifth start, but took the no-decision.

The Mainers got to him quickly, as Jancarski reached on a fielder’s choice, stole second and eventually came around to score on Mompierre’s single in the first. The Mountaineers, however, answered. Joe Tietjen drew a two-out walk against Sanford starter Will Tribucher in the home half and scored on Michael Osinski’s RBI single.

Sanford took the lead in the fourth on a RBI single from Michael Young, but Vermont answered again, and then some. Jeremy Giles drew a bases-loaded walk and Trevor Ezell followed with a two-run single that dropped in right field to take the lead back. Vermont chased Tribucher in the following inning, as the team loaded the bases again.

Tribucher served up a season-high five earned runs while lasting just 4.1 innings and walking five in his worst start of the summer. The southpaw still sports a 2.45 ERA, but he has gradually slipped in recent starts. After not allowing an earned run over his first 18 innings to start the summer, Sanford’s ace has appeared merely human, coughing up nine in his last 13.

Reliever Thomas Fortier gave up a sacrifice fly to the first batter he faced, Slade Heggen, allowing Vermont to take a four-run lead into the sixth.

Vermont reliever Christian Isbell, looking for a fourth straight scoreless outing, faltered. He gave up a RBI double to John Cresto in the sixth, then allowed three more to come across in the seventh on one swing of the bat.

After a dropped third strike that allowed Zach Jancarski to reach and a single from Shaine Hughes, Isebll fanned two. He should’ve been out of the seventh, but Sanford right fielder Christopher Gaetano had other plans. He took a 1-1 pitch and teed off, launching it over the fence in right for his fourth home run of the season.

It temporarily gave the Mainers a lead, but Vermont rallied once again. Sanford reliever Joe Orlando hit the first batter he faced in the eighth, Jeremy McCuin. Giles bunted him to second, Ezell singled, and Gaetano misplayed the ball in right field to bring him in. A questionable out call on a double play ended Vermont’s threat, resulting in extras.