Lehman Suffers First Defeat in Rain-Shortened Loss
Sanford falls 4-1 in six innings to North Shore.

Sanford, ME – A game that started after a long weather delay ended in six short innings as the North Shore Navigators defeated the Sanford Mainers 4-1 in a rain-shortened affair Wednesday night at Goodall Park. Pat Lehman was draped with his first loss of the season, allowing four runs in six innings of work.

Sanford would get on the board first in the fifth. Anthony D’Alfonso reached on a three-base error by centerfielder Justil Little, on a well-struck ball dropped in the left-center field alley. With one away after a Devin Harris strikeout, Will Greenberg pummeled a pitch to left-center field. This time Little got to it to make the catch, but D’Alfonso came in to score to give the Mainers a short-lived 1-0 edge.

All the scoring for the Navigators came in the sixth inning. Mike Provencher led off with a double to left-center, followed by a Sean McNaughton RBI triple to tie the game. After a Josh Garton fly out to left, Matt Costello reached on an infield single on a grounder to first, with the runner McNaughton holding at third base. Nick Belcher then delivered a sacrifice fly to deep left-center, plating McNaughton. John Hill tripled on a ringing liner to right field scoring Costello and then came in to score on Chad Zurcher’s run-scoring single to give the Navigators their 4-1 advantage. Sanford would go down in order in the bottom of the sixth inning, right before the rains arrived.

Lehman dropped to 4-1 on the season. He gave up the four runs on nine hits, striking out six. Adam Herter picked up his second win against Sanford this season. He went all six innings and gave up one unearned run on two hits, striking out three.

***Box scores available at necbl.com


Notes…Sanford is now just 1-4 against North Shore this season… The Mainers dropped just their second contest when they allow four or less runs. They are now 20-2 in those contests... The Mainers travel to Lowell Thursday night to take on the All-Americans in a makeup game that was originally scheduled for this past Monday. First pitch is scheduled for 6:30. Audio and video streaming are both available at sanfordmainers.com