Mainers Fall to Keene 10-4
Mainers conclude four-game road set Thursday night at Holyoke

Keene, NH – A.J. Casario led off the ballgame with his first homer of the year, but that lead would be short-lived for the Sanford Mainers as the Keene Swampbats scored six times in the bottom of the third en route to a 10-4 victory over Sanford Wednesday night at Alumni Field.

The Mainers would waste no time getting on the scoreboard. Leading off for the first time all season, Casario took a 2-0 fastball deep to right-center for a lead-off longball to give Sanford an instant 1-0 edge. That lead would not last long, as Keene would even the game back up in their half of the first. After a Dan Grovat double and a wild pitch, Josh Chester grounded out to second to score the runner from third to knot the game up at one.

The Keene bats would heat up in the third. The Swampbats scored six times, recording seven hits and sending 10 men to the plate off of Mainers’ starter Nick Cenatiempo. The big blows of the inning came on two three-run homers off the bats of Grovat and Danny Petro.

Sanford would get one run back in the top of the fourth. Matt Nandin singled with one away. Corey Hunt reached on a Chris Tremblay error at second base. After a wild pitch, Kevin Reimer delivered an RBI groundout to score Nandin. Keene would bounce back with two of their own in their half of the fourth on back-to-back RBI doubles by Chester and Paul Karmas.

The Mainers would get their final two runs in the top of the fifth. Brian Harris and Kyle Groth both singled to lead off the inning. Devin Harris struck out. Anthony D’Alonso then drilled an opposite field single to left to score Brian Harris. With the bases loaded and only one away, Groth came to the plate on a wild pitch. Sanford had an opportunity to cut into their deficit even more with runners on second and third and still only one away, but Hunt struck out swinging and Reimer lined sharply to left to end the threat. Jose Macias added an RBI single in the eighth to finish the scoring at 10-4.

Cenatiempo battled through five and two-thirds innings but ultimately gave up nine runs on 11 hits. It was the right-handers second loss of the season. Mark Schmidt pitched the final two and a third innings and gave up one run. James Wise earned the win for Keene. He lasted five innings, and gave up four runs on nine hits.

***Box scores available at necbl.com


Notes… Brian Harris reached base three more times before grounding out to first, ending his on-base streak at 10 plate appearances…The Mainers are now 1-3 against Keene… The Mainers conclude their four-game road trip Thursday night at Holyoke. First pitch is slated for 6:30. Audio and video streaming are both available at sanfordmainers.com