john cate, the sanford herald, n.c.
·5 min read
Jun. 11—After blowing out three opponents to start the 2024 season, the Sanford Spinners ran into some rough sledding during the weekend.
Sanford played its first two home games of the season on Friday and Saturday nights after opening with three road games last week. The Spinners lost a tightly contested home opener 4-3 in 11 innings against the Sandhills Bogeys, then had to turn around Saturday and play the Hope Mills Rockfish for the first time this season. In another close, back-and-forth game, the Rockfish held off the Spinners for an 8-6 victory.
Sunday saw the Spinners back on the road for a game against the Brunswick Surfin' Turfs, and this one did not go well for them at all, as the Surfin' Turfs scored eight runs in the fourth inning and never looked back in a 13-3 victory.
The three losses evened Sanford's record at 3-3 on the year, but they hit a break in the schedule and have two days off before facing the Rockfish again on Wednesday night at 7 p.m. in Hope Mills. The Surfin' Turfs come to Tramway Park for a 7 p.m. Thursday contest.
Friday's home opener came with a packed house at Tramway Park, and the fans in attendance got their money's worth and then some, as the game did not end until the Spinners made the third out in the bottom of the 11th with the potential tying and winning runs on base.
The Old North State League follows the professional tiebreak rule in extra innings, with a man placed on second base to start each inning. The Bogeys took a 4-3 lead in the top of the 11th when Jacob Johnston led off the inning with an RBI single to score the runner from second.
Sanford pitcher Kaden Varela-Payne started the game and pitched out of a jam in the third after allowing two straight hits to open the inning. He struck out two in a row and then got a groundout to keep the game 0-0. In the bottom half of the inning, Ashton Donathan hit a two-out triple off the glove of Bogey right fielder Angel Lobo to drive in Will Newton.
The Bogeys tied it right back on a leadoff homer by Caden Petrey to open the fourth, but the Spinners got out of the inning with no more scoring.
The visitors took a 2-1 lead in the fifth, but the Spinners got it back in the sixth on a triple by Pierce Bouwman, who scored on a wild pitch moments later. Both teams scored in the seventh, the Bogeys on back-to-back doubles by Charlie Muniz and Cameron Combs, and the Spinners on a Donathan sacrifice fly that drove in Kaden Ethier from third.
Both teams had runners on in the 8th, 9th, and 10th innings but failed to score.
The Spinners had just six hits in the game and half of them were from the ex-Southern Lee players, making their first appearance in Tramway Park in over a year. Bouwman was 2-for-4 with a walk and run scored, and Donathan was 1-for-2 with two RBI and a walk. Both had a triple. But Newton, who was hitting ninth, had a remarkable outing, going 1-for-1 and walking four times; the Bogeys never got him out.
Varela-Payne struck out six and allowed one run in three-plus innings. Bobby Osburn later pitched two scoreless innings.
Rockfish 8, Spinners 6The Spinners started strong, loading the bases on back-to-back singles from Cade Martinez and Christian Grino, both of whom crossed the country to play here this summer. Martinez is from San Diego State and Grino from the University of San Diego. After Bouwman walked to load the bases, Coleman McGinnis singled to drive in the two Californians and Bouwman later scored on a groundout by Aaron Kimbel.
However, the Rockfish scored two runs in the second inning and took the lead with three in the sixth, then pushed the lead to 7-1 in the top of the seventh before the Spinners rallied with a three-run seventh aided by three hit batsmen and two walks off Hope Mills pitching. The Spinners had the potential tying runs on base with no one out in the eighth but couldn't score.
Martinez went 3-for-4 with a walk and Grino was 2-for-3 with two walks batting 1-2 in the order, and scored three runs between them, but no one else could get more than a single hit. Spinner pitcher Cranz Smelcer pitched four innings with six strikeouts and just one earned run allowed.
Surfin' Turfs 13, Spinners 3This is one the Spinners will likely just as soon forget. Each team had nine hits, and Sanford committed just two errors to four for the home team, but didn't sequence them as well and never led.
The Surfin' Turfs scored four in the second to take the lead. The Spinners got two back in the top of the third thanks to an RBI triple from Martinez followed by a single from Grino that drove him in, but that was as close as they ever got. A run from Brunswick in the bottom half of the inning was followed by eight more in the fourth, and from there the teams played out the string until it was called in the seventh on the run-rule.
Bouwman doubled in Grino in the fifth for the only other Spinners run.
Grino was 3-for-4 with a run scored and an RBI, and Martinez was 2-for-4 with a run scored and an RBI. Abi Kadangot was 2-for-2.
