SANFORD — The Sanford Mainers fell one win shy of a league title last season and are motivated to finish the job this summer.

“We are taking this summer one game at a time, one inning at a time, one batter at a time and one pitch at a time,” said fifth-year Sanford manager Nic Lops. “We really like simplifying things around here, but the ultimate goal would be to hold that (Fay) Vincent Cup (awarded to the league champion) at the end of the summer.”

The Mainers went 26-18 in the regular season and lost to the Newport Gulls 8-7 in extra innings in the New England Collegiate Baseball League championship game last year. Sanford plays its first home game of the 2025 season against the Upper Valley Nighthawks at 6:30 p.m. Friday at Goodall Park.

The NECBL is a summer wooden bat league for college players. The Mainers feature several in-state and New England players, but also a good mix of players from outside New England.

“We are ranked the second-best league in the nation, right behind the Cape Cod League, so it’s definitely a league coaches love to send their players to because it’s top-notch talent,” Lops said.

Lops is also the director of player development at St. Joseph’s College and previously coached Southern Maine Community College to three Yankee Small College Conference titles. Last season, he won his second NECBL manager of the year award.

Blake Schaaf, an infielder who just finished his sophomore season at Georgetown University, is back for his second season with the Mainers. This season at Georgetown, Schaaf started 55 games, compiling a .344 batting average and 35 RBI. In 24 games for Sanford last season, he batted .208 with three doubles and nine RBI.

“I came last year and I had a blast. It was probably the most fun summer of my life,” said Schaaf.

At Georgetown, Schaaf is coached by Jay native Edwin Thompson. Lops said Sanford’s roster is built thanks to those type of connections. General manager Aaron Izaryk, who played for and managed the Mainers before becoming the team’s general manager, has built relationships with several schools, including the University of Georgia and the University of North Carolina-Greensboro.

“We have some pipelines that bring us players from all over, and then also the roster has a handful of pretty talented Maine boys as well,” Lops said. “So it’s a good dispersion. We have players all the way from California to two miles up the road. So it’s pretty sweet.”

One direct product of the pipeline is Kellen Strohmeyer, a redshirt sophomore at the University of Iowa.  Strohmeyer, who is from Dubuque, Iowa, batted .270 in 38 games for Iowa this past season. Strohmeyer said Iowa’s pitching coach, Sean Kenny, influenced his decision to spend the summer in Maine.

“He said Maine was an option, and I didn’t think twice about it,” Strohmeyer said. “I like to just take advantage of summer ball. I was in Alaska last year, and so I’m kind of seeing all America has to offer.”

The roster includes eight players from Maine. One of them, TJ Curley, a pitcher at Stonehill College, is from Sanford.

“I grew up coming to the Mainers’ games, and like you see all the big kids out there, they were like celebrities to me,” Curley said.

A left-handed pitcher, Curley made three appearances, including two starts, for Stonehill in 2025.

The other Mainers are University of Rhode Island teammates Josh Kopetski of Arundel (Thornton Academy) and Brian Connolly of Brunswick (Cheverus), UMass catcher Ryan Kolben of Cumberland (Greely), UConn pitcher Drew Smith of Auburn (Edward Little), UMaine pitcher Jason Libby of Bangor (Bangor Christian), USM infielder Kyle Douin of Augusta (Cony) and Salve Regina pitcher Connor Toriello of North Berwick (St. Thomas Aquinas).

The NECBL is a showcase for players and a chance to test themselves using wooden bats against quality competition. Winning, the players say, is still important.

“We’re all here obviously to get better, but we still want to win baseball games and just use this to get better, but also help Sanford at the end of the day,” said Strohmeyer.