HOLYOKE – After a 7 a.m. exit and a two-hour bus ride to the North Shore on Tuesday, the Valley Blue Sox came back home to MacKenzie Stadium and won their home opener, 6-4, over the Sanford Mainers on Wednesday night.

The Blue Sox scored three runs in the third and fourth innings to go up 6-0. The Mainers left runners on base in every inning (16 in total) and scored three of their four runs with two outs in the ninth on a bases-clearing triple.

“We’re definitely back to normal,” Blue Sox head coach Pedro Santiago said. “Especially after that early travel, which we can do, but definitely good to be back here.”

Blue Sox starter David Case stranded 10 runners in six scoreless innings. He allowed five hits and eight walks but struck out 10 in his longest outing since the fall. The Pasadena, Calif. native plays his college ball at Grand Canyon.

“I felt really good body-wise,” Case said. “I was definitely built up for that many pitches and hopefully I can extend even further the next couple times.”

Merrimack catcher and East Longmeadow native Frankie Ferrentino didn’t have much rust to shake off. His season ended on May 25 in the NEC Championship. He said he felt like he barely missed a beat from season to season.

But after 239 at-bats this season with a metal bat, adjusting to the wood bats in the NECBL is going to take a few weeks, Ferrentino said. If a player clips a metal bat on a pitch, they might end up with a hit. With wood, clipping a pitch can mean a shattered bat.

“There’s no real cheap hits with wood,” Ferrentino said. “Metal, way more give, more feel, way more cheap hits. You can jam a homer (with metal). This, forget about it, you’re not jamming a homer with wood.”

After they were no-hit for seven innings and only managed one hit against the Navigators on Tuesday, the Blue Sox hit several balls hard against Mainers starter Ryan Douglas. They knocked Douglas out of the game after only three-plus innings. 

Murray State right fielder Jonathan Hogart rebounded from being hit in the helmet with a pitch in the first inning to crack an RBI double in the third inning for the Blue Sox’s first run. Eastern Michigan center fielder Logan Hugo drove in two more with a double of his own in the fourth.

West Springfield graduate and Eastern Connecticut State pitcher Chris Torres came in for the ninth inning to close out the game. He almost retired the Mainers 1-2-3, but an error on the potential game-ending out extended the inning and three unearned runs scored. Torres induced a flyout to center to end the game, and then met up with a contingent of a dozen local family and friends who came to watch him pitch.

“It’s always good to win the home opener,” Case said. “I think we showed the people out there today we’re a pretty solid team, so hopefully we keep rolling.”