SANFORD — Even though the season is just over a week old, the Sanford Mainers have already developed the troubling habit of falling behind early in games.

They’ve also shown a knack for overcoming those deficits.

On Monday night against Newport, the Mainers held to form and fell behind. But despite clawing back out of that initial hole once again, they weren’t able to break free of it.

Trailing the Gulls 3-0 after four innings, Sanford got a kickstart from the bottom of its lineup to score three times in the fifth to tie the game but missed a golden opportunity in the sixth to take the lead.

Newport didn’t have any such problems taking advantage, scoring a run on two hit batsmen and a bloop single in the eighth, to beat the Mainers 4-3 in a New England Collegiate Baseball League game at Goodall Park.

It was the sixth time in eight games that the Mainers (4-4) have failed to score first as they dropped back to .500 with the defeat, a game behind the North Division-leading Valley Blue Sox.

“We got behind early, which is where we’ve been,” Sanford manager Aaron Izaryk said. “For the first eight games, we’ve played from behind quite a bit. We then let them extend the lead, which we shouldn’t have looking back, and then missed some chances at the end.”

University of Rhode Island junior Ben Wessel ”“ a Scarborough native ”“ made his second start for Sanford and went going from good to bad to good in the space of six innings.

Wessel, who allowed just one earned run in his first start last Monday, started strong, inducing four ground balls and a strikeout in two scoreless innings.

But he ran into trouble the second time through the order as a single by A.J. Zarozny and a Shea Donlin double gave Newport runners at second and third with two outs. Tommy Edman got the Gulls on the board with an RBI groundout, and Nick Zammarelli came through with a two-out single to plate Donlin and make it 2-0.

After Sanford wasted Dan Hetzel’s leadoff double in the bottom half of the third, Newport tacked on another run in the fourth as Ryan Tufts led off with a single, stole second and scored on a pair of groundouts.

“Give it up to Newport. They’re a good hitting team,” Wessel said. “The first couple innings, I was able to mix in my breaking ball to keep them off-balance, but then I got my fastball elevated a little bit and they put it in play.

“From there I was just shooting for keeping the team in the game and putting them in a position to win.”

Wessel did just that, keeping Newport off the board for the next two innings, and the Mainers finally provided him some run support in the fifth as they got to Gulls starter Mike Mancuso.

Seven-hole hitter Kevin Stypulkowski started the rally with a single, and after Hetzel walked, Nick Lovullo’s sacrifice bunt attempt down the third-base line was fumbled by Mancuso to give Sanford a bases loaded opportunity with no outs.

Mancuso then did the Mainers another favor, nearly throwing Sam Balzano’s comebacker past catcher P.J. Jones as Sanford avoided what looked like a sure-fire double play. Caden Bailey followed with a single to left to score two runs, and Sam Dexter’s groundout plated Balzano to make it 3-3.

“Other teams I’ve had, that game would have gone from a 3-0 to a 6-0 game, and all of a sudden it’s all over,” Izaryk said. “But we fought back.”

Sanford had a chance to take the lead in the sixth as Will Marcal led off with a single, stole second and got to third with one out on Steve Berman’s groundout to first. But the Mainers couldn’t get the run in as Stypulkowski also grounded out to first with the infield drawn in, and Hetzel ended the inning with another groundout to shortstop.

The Gulls took their chance to regain the lead in the eighth. Anthony Ciavarella had relieved Wessel and pitched a perfect seventh for Sanford, and then got two quick outs to start the eighth. But the lefty’s control then failed him as he hit right-handed batters Colby Wright and Tufts to give Newport a lifeline.

“I think he was just trying to go inside,” Izaryk said, “And if you try to pitch inside, you’re going to hit guys.”

John Nicklas replaced Ciavarella to face Jones and looked to have jammed the Newport seven-hole hitter with an inside fastball, only for the ball to fall just inches beyond a back-tracking Dexter in short-right field to score Wright from second.

Sanford had one last chance to score in the ninth as Gulls closer Mark McCoy walked Stypulkowski to lead off the inning. Drake Parker pinch ran and made it to third with two outs after a sacrifice bunt and a ground out, but for one last time Sanford couldn’t come up with the big base hit when it was needed as Michael Rescigno ”“ pinch hitting for Balzano in his first at-bat of the year ”“ looked at three strikes to end the game.

“It was a righty lefty thing,” Izaryk said of his decision to pinch-hit for his leadoff hitter Balzano, a left-handed batsman, against the southpaw McCoy. “Sammy’s been struggling a little bit at the plate, and Mike’s going to be a good bat for us. I wanted to get him out there and see what he could do. It was a tough spot, but at the same time, I think he’ll be able to do it for us.”

Sanford is off today but will look to get back into the win column when it hosts Ocean State at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, with Marist College senior Richard Vrana (1-0, 1.42 ERA) expected to get the start.

With a fifth of the season already gone, and nearly all of his players in town as the college season finishes up, Izaryk said it’s time to start stringing some victories together.

“We’re starting to settle in here (in the) second week,” he said. “They know each other, they understand each other, now it’s time to play good baseball.”

— Staff Writer Cameron Dunbar can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 323 or [email protected].