Both Justin Courtney and Jake Dexter, two state of Maine natives, are both continuing their baseball career in the Pine Tree state this summer with the Sanford Mainers of the New England Collegiate Baseball League.
The all wooden bat league consists of former collegiate players trying to still tune their games in hopes of moving up the ranks. The Mainers have been in the league since 2002 and play their home games at Goodall Park down in Sanford. Sanford plays in the seven team North Division, while the South consists of six teams. The Mainers won the league title in 2004 and 2008, and have also won the regular season division title in 2003, 2008, and 2016.
Dexter, a pitcher/infielder from Oakland, Maine and the University of Southern Maine has mostly seen time on the mound this season. Dexter has made eight relief appearances and has a 1.89 ERA in 11.2 innings pitched. He has no decisions. Dexter has three at bats thus far and is 0-3 with a strikeout. Dexter helped the Southern Maine Huskies in the Division III playoffs, falling just one win short of advancing to the Division III World Series, finishing off a stellar year at 34-13.
Courtney, a pitcher from Bangor, Maine and the University of Maine has made two starts and is 1-1 with a 2.64 ERA in 13.1 innings. Courtney helped the Black Bears to the most wins (25) in four years, and led them to the title game of the America East Tournament in May before falling to UMBC.
The Mainers play a total of 51 games with the regular season concluding on August 1st. Sanford at the moment is 2-11 on the season, 7.5 games behind the leaders in the Northern Division. Tickets are just five dollars and all home games start at 6:30 p.m. A full schedule can be seen on the teams website at SanfordMainers.com
