For Immediate Release
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Scott Montesano
Director of Communications
scottmontesano@goredfoxes.com

Mainers Win Wild 5-4 12-Inning game
Host North Adams in Northern Division Clash Tonight at 7pm

SANFORD (ME) – Seth Iorg laid down a perfect suicide squeeze bunt in the top of the 12th inning to give the Torrington Twisters a 4-3 lead. The squeeze bunt, executed on a 2-2 count, would have been an exciting way to conclude a well-played ballgame.

However, to the pure joy of 702 Sunday night Goodall Park fans, the Sanford Mainers weren’t about to drop another crucial home game.

With one out in the bottom of the 12th, Chris Fournier’s (Notre Dame) fly ball to shallow centerfield was lost in the lights by Iorg. Fournier ended up at second base with a double. Then, after Tripp Cappelmann (Citadel) lined out to leftfield, Jeremy Crum (Ventral Michigan) would provide the Mainers with their most dramatic moment this season.

Crum laced a 1-0 Kevin Gunderson offering to centerfield, scoring Fournier to tie the game. The throw from centerfield was cutoff by first basemen Nick Devito, who fired the ball to second in an attempt to get Crum who was trying to advance on the throw. However, Devito’s throw sailed errantly into centerfield.

Crum quickly scampered all the way from second to score, beating a throw by Iorg in center with a headfirst slide. Crum was mobbed by his teammates who jubilantly celebrated Sanford’s 5-4 triumph.

The victory is the Mainers’ first walk-off win all season, and first in extra innings. It was also Sanford’s second consecutive win, after earning a thrilling 3-2 win at Concord on Saturday night.

Josh Sawatzky (Niagara) picked up his first win of the summer. The win was especially sweet for Sawatzky, who earned it in front of his parents who had driven to Sanford from their home in Manitoba.

Sawatzky pitched 5.2 innings in relief of Mike Honce (Winthrop) who also had a good outing. Sawatzky allowed only one run on four hits. Honce had allowed two earned runs on five hits in 6.1 innings.

Torrington had taken a 2-0 lead in the ballgame after 5 ½ innings thanks to a solo homer by Nick Devito in the fifth, and a passed ball, which scored a run in the sixth. The Mainers would get a run back in the bottom of the sixth.

With two outs and Crum at second, Torrington starter Steve Spurgeon threw a wild pitch, and Crum came all the way from second to score. Nonetheless, Torrington would regain a two-run lead when catcher Ted Dziuba led off the seventh with a line drive homer over the right field fence.

The Mainers tied the game in the eight off Gunderson, who was at the time, in his first inning of relief. Fournier reached base to start the inning when his groundball went between the legs of the shortstop Eli Iorg. Back-to-back bunt singles by Cappelmann and Crum then loaded the bases for pinch-hitter Kevin Sevigny (Baylor). The local boy came through with a sacrifice fly to centerfield.

Ryan Crew (UT-San Antonio) followed with an RBI single –his team leading 22 RBI – to tie the score and send the game to extra innings.

In the 12th, Devito led off with a triple, and would score on Seth Iorg’s bunt, before the Mainers’ heroics in the bottom of the frame.

The Sanford Mainers are a non-for-profit organization and are in their third season in the New England Collegiate Baseball League. Founded in 1993, the NECBL is a summer league for premier college baseball players and is sponsored by the NCAA and Major League Baseball.

Mainers’ home games are played at Goodall Park. All games are broadcasted on
sanfordmainers.com and necbl.com.