The Sanford Mainers had a long day on Monday, as they played two games in two different states, and came away with two different outcomes. The day started off well, as the Mainers downed the Ocean State Waves 2-1 in 12 innings in Rhode Island, and nearly pulled off a two-game, two-state sweep, but couldn’t hold on in a 6-5 walk-off defeat to the Mystic Schooners in Connecticut.

Sanford plated a two-out run in the top of the 12th inning to earn a victory over Ocean State at Old Mountain Field.

The loss snapped the Waves’ (20-12) seven-game winning streak and moved them to 0-3 in extra-inning games this season. The Mainers moved to 18-11 with the win.

Deadlocked since the fifth inning, Sam Balzano led off the 12th inning with a single. A sacrifice bunt moved him to second, and Drake Parker’s two-out single to center scored him with the winning run.

Ocean State had one final chance in its last at-bat but left the bases loaded. Buck McCarthy singled and advanced to second on an error to start the inning, but Cam Hatch retired the next two batters. Back-to-back walks loaded the bases with two outs, but Hatch induced a ground ball to short to end the game.

The Waves were first on the board, scoring their lone run in the fourth. A.J. Ramirez tripled down the right field line with one out and scored as Jordan Mountford drilled a sacrifice fly to right.

Sanford responded with the tying run in the top of the fifth. Matt Pagano drew a lead-off walk, stole second, moved to third on a ground out and scored on a single from Mike Rescigno.

Both pitching staffs kept the game tied from there. Hunter Schryver started for the Waves and pitched the first two innings. He walked the first two batters of the game but induced a 6-4-3 double play to get out of the jam. Robert Plohr followed with two scoreless innings, and Mark Lukowski allowed a run on one hit over two innings. Oliver Powers got the first two outs of the seventh, and David Gerber followed with 2.1 scoreless innings of relief. Jeff Paglione pitched the final three innings, suffering his third loss of the season.

Nicholas Poore struck out six over the first 5.1 innings for Sanford. Cody Dube (0.2), Anthony Ciavarella (4.0), Rudy Johnson (1.0) and Hatch (1.0) combined to allow just three hits over the final 6.2 innings.

Later in the day, in a game that started more than 90 minutes late due to a travel delay, the Mystic Schooners pulled out a thrilling comeback victory over the Sanford Mainers (18-12).

Trailing 5-4 with runners on the corners in the top of the ninth, Aaron Hill made a spectacular sliding catch behind the second base bag and flipped the ball from his glove to start an inning-ending 6-4-3 double play, and keep the deficit at just one run. In the home half, it was Hill once again who delivered in the clutch.

To start the frame, Toby Handley punched a changeup through the right side of the infield for a single, and with one out, Steve Laurino did the same. Then, Mystic’s leading RBI man, Dan Hoy, hammered a first-pitch fastball down the left field line to score Handley. The game-tying double put men on second and third with only one out, and Hill coming to the dish.

With the infield drawn in, Hill smacked a hard grounder past the sprawling shortstop to score Laurino and give the Schooners a 6-5 victory; their third walk-off win of the summer.

Coming into the game, having lost seven of their last eight, the Schooners put together perhaps their most complete effort of the last two weeks. Their hitters delivered with men on base, as they were able to erase deficits of 3-0 and 5-3.

The Schooners’ starter, Chris Kalica, exited the game after just one inning due to an apparent injury, but not before he surrendered a 2-0 lead on a first-inning home run by Cory Raley. From there, four relievers combined to allow just three runs over eight innings of work, and struck out nine.

At the plate, both Hill and Andrew Hinckley hit solo home runs, eight of the team’s starters registered a hit and five had multi-hit performances. Laurino continued his All-Star summer with a 4-for-5 performance, and Jared Hendren went 1-for-3 with a stolen base and run scored to maintain a .333 batting average in the month of July.

Jonathan Chudy took the loss for Sanford, as he gave up two runs on four hits in 0.2 innings. Jeff Singer had a no-decision after starting for the Mainers; he allowed four runs on nine hits in 6.1 innings.

The Mainers scored single runs in the third, fifth and seventh innings. Stevie Berman led the offense with four hits and two RBIs.