HOLYOKE, Mass. — A night after the offense was held in check, the Sanford Mainers (16-13) bats turned 19 hits into 12 runs as the Mainers scored in five different innings in a 12-2 win over the Valley Blue Sox (16-14) at MacKenzie Stadium Thursday night.

Already in control 5-1 after six innings, the Mainers offense unleashed on Valley’s pitching late, sending 13 hitters to the plate, punching seven hits for six runs in the eighth inning. Sam Dexter collected a pair of RBI singles in the inning, two of his five hits on the evening, while Dalton Thomas, Dan Hetzel, Robbie Knightes and Nate Stepna all had RBI hits in the frame.

The Mainers strung together three walks and four hits before the first out was made. Eight different Mainers had multi-hit games, with Dexter pacing the attack with three RBIs while Stepna scored four times and stole two bases.

On the mound, Matt D’Ariano made his Mainers debut, tossing two-plus innings of work while allowing no runs. Brendan Shea picked up the win, tossing 1 2/3 innings of one-run ball, while Aaron Casper continued his dominant run, tossing three scoreless innings.

The Mainers host the Blue Sox at Goodall Park tonight, with right-hander Ben Wessel (2-3, 1.98 ERA) on the mound for Sanford, while righty Conner Colombo (1-0, 2.41) will get the start for Valley.

Moose Tracks

Ӣ With another multi-hit night, Thomas not only extended his team-high hit streak to 11 games, but he also has 12 multi-hit games this season.

Ӣ Dexter is the first Mainer this season to have five hits in a single game.

Ӣ In their last nine games, the Mainers have out-scored opponents 54-35 and improved to 13-4 when they score four more runs or more, as opposed to 2-9 when they score three runs or less.

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