Navs Snap Skid in Crucial Sunday Win at Sanford

SANFORD, Maine — The North Shore Navigators cracked two home runs and got another strong team pitching performance in a 7-4 win over the North Division-leading Sanford Mainers in Sunday's New England Collegiate Baseball League action at Goodall Park. 

Right fielder Grant Hunter (Binghamton) and catcher Aidan Sengenberger (Seton Hall) both left the yard to lead the way for North Shore, which improved to 18-18 and snapped a four-game losing streak. Sengenberger's two-run homer in the seventh inning provided crucial insurance.

Hunter became the first Navigator to hit five homers in a single season since former NECBL Top Pro Prospect Logan Bravo (Harvard) and Joe Lomuscio (Stanford) both did so in 2021. Bravo's 14 homers that summer are still a single-season franchise record.

The North Shore pitching staff combined to strike out 12 batters, with All-Star starter Gian Gamelli (Notre Dame) and reliever Thomas Mahoney (Northeastern) recording five apiece. Gamelli allowed just one earned run among three total across the first four innings, while Mahoney followed with three innings of one-run ball.

Another left-hander was called upon late in the game, as Justin Fryer (Northwestern) pitched two shutout innings to record his second save of the summer.

After Gamelli retired five of the first six batters he faced and ended the second inning with back-to-back strikeouts, North Shore opened the scoring with four runs in the top of the third.

The crooked-number inning began with designated hitter Daniel Leikus (Rhode Island) knocking a leadoff single into left field before catcher Aidan Sengenberger (Seton Hall) walked and left fielder Luke Miele (Roger Williams) beat out an infield single to load the bases.

After center fielder Hunter Kingsbury's (Bryant) grounder to second base plated the opening run, a balk scored Sengenberger and moved Miele to third. The biggest hit of the inning followed, as Ellis knocked an RBI double into open grass in center field. After Ellis swiped third, third baseman Tyler Shulman (Harvard) lifted a sacrifice fly to right to make it a 4-0 game.

Sanford trimmed its deficit to 4-2 with a pair of unearned runs in the back half of the third. Center fielder Sam Miller (Binghamton) drew a one-out walk, stole second and advanced to third on a failed pickoff, and another fielding error brought in the Mainers' first run. Right fielder Nater Wachter (UConn) then ripped an RBI triple to deep left-center field.

Three straight baserunners to begin the fourth helped bring Sanford within one, as designated hitter Jackson Sirois (Maryland) scored second baseman Brian Connolly (Rhode Island) on an RBI fielder's choice. The Mainers could have had even more after back-to-back walks started the fifth, but Mahoney worked out of trouble by striking out the side.

Hunter ended Sanford starter Bryson Thacker's (FIU) streak of 10 straight Navs batters retired with a bang in the sixth, depositing a two-out solo homer to left-center. It was his second round-tripper of the summer in Sanford.

The Mainers made it a one-run game again on center fielder Albert De La Rosa's (Maine) two-out RBI single, scoring Miller following a double. Mahoney ended the inning with a fly ball and retired the final four men he faced.

Sengenberger put an exclamation point on the victory, using the short right-field porch to his advantage on a two-run homer in the seventh. First baseman Simmi Whitehill (Monmouth) drew a leadoff walk, stole second and advanced to third on a throwing error before the blast. 

Fryer capped both of his innings with a strikeout, escaping a bases-loaded jam in the eighth and working around a two-out error to post a zero in an 11-pitch final frame.

The Navs are back on the road on Monday night to take on the Upper Valley Nighthawks in White River Junction, Vt. First pitch of another North Division clash at Maxfield Sports Complex is set for 6 p.m.