SANFORD — They say it’s only a rivalry if both sides win. In that case, the Maine rivalry in the NECBL will have to wait another year to begin.
Sanford used a sixth-run fourth inning and 11 strikeouts from starting pitcher Vinny DePierro to beat Old Orchard Beach 10-3 in front of 565 fans Monday night at Goodall Park. With the win, the Mainers (18-17) swept the season series 6-0 from their interstate rival in the Raging Tide’s first season in OOB.
“There’s defiantly some satisfaction there, there’s satisfaction in beating any team six times,” Mainers pitching coach Lee Jatkevicius said. “I don’t think the rivalry is where it will be in years to come. Whereas it’s the first year, as years go on it will be more intense and it will be a lot of fun.”
The fourth inning was the turning point, and it also was emblematic of the way the Raging Tide’s (7-31) entire summer has gone.
In the top half of the inning, manager Inaki Ormaechea was thrown out on a borderline third-strike call by Robbie Trask by home plate umpire Donald January. Ormaechea could be heard screaming at January from the dugout before being tossed, at which point he ran on to the field to get his money’s worth.
“It happens, its baseball and tempers get flared,” assistant coach Jared Lemieux said. “Umpires miss calls and you just got to have your players back when something like that happens. That’s what Nak was doing, and he got rung up cause he was a little too loud.”
But it got much worse for OOB in the bottom half, when centerfielder Thomas Bourdon lost a fly ball in the lights off the bat of leadoff batter Mike Montville for a triple to start things off. From there the wheels fell off rapidly, and nine batters, two singles, three errors, a walk and a wild pitch later, Sanford had six runs and a 7-3 lead.
“You can’t have those kind of innings in this league,” Lemieux said. “We’ve had a few and that one was probably one of our worst. You can’t give good teams outs and we gave them six in one inning. I fully expect them to put up five, six runs if we give them three extra outs and 12 extra bases.”
OOB had been up 3-1 heading into the fourth thanks to an RBI single by Thomas Bourdon in the second, added to by a Tim Quinn RBI double and Marcus Way RBI triple in the third.
But DePierro overcame the rough patch to post six innings of five-hit baseball, fanning 11 while walking just one to pick up the win. A starter at UMASS Lowell, where he threw a no hitter this past season, it was DePierro’s first start for the Mainers after coming out of the bullpen nine times.
“I prefer starting to tell you the truth,” he said. “It is a little different from relieving, but its still all concentration and focus.”
Sanford added three insurance runs in the seventh, largely thanks to three more Raging Tide errors. Relievers Aaron Cohen and Brendan Hourihan combined for three innings of no-hit ball to close the game out.
Matt Croglio picked up the loss for the Tide, going 4 1/3 and giving up seven runs, only two of which were earned. OOB is off until Thursday, when it will host Danbury at The Ballpark at 2 p.m.
The Mainers are back in action tomorrow in a key Eastern Division matchup as they travel to North Shore to take on the Navigators, who they sit tied with for second in the Eastern Division. The game, an irregularly scheduled noon affair, will be a quick turnaround for a Sanford team used to playing nights.
“It shouldn’t hurt us,” Jatkevicius said of the early start time. “We’ll get down there, strap it on and go. We’ll play anyone, anywhere, anytime.”
NOTES: The start was delayed 37 minutes by rain ”¦ OOB and UMaine shortstop Mike Fransoso will miss the last four games of the season with a lingering hip injury he suffered during the college season.
Fransoso will still play in the NECBL All-Star game Wednesday”¦ OOB’s All-Star centerfielder Billy Bereszniewicz also missed the game with inflation in his left arm ”¦ Jatkevicius filled in for the second-straight game for manager Aaron Izaryk, who is serving a three-game suspension for an ejection against Newport on Saturday.
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