Sharks pitcher Will Warren retired the first 17 Mainers he faced at Saturday’s game on the Vineyard home field. And then lightning bolted across the sky.

A thunderstorm-induced delay ended Warren’s evening, and the Sanford Mainers mounted a 9-8 comeback victory nobody could have seen coming.

Warren, a Brandon, Miss., native, was electric in six innings of work, striking out five before walking Mainer shortstop Sterling Hayes, ending his near-perfect bid.

The Mainers couldn’t catch up to Warren’s fastball, and his slider and curveball were equally impressive.

But while Warren surely would have loved to keep pitching in pursuit of a no-hitter, Mother Nature had other plans. A thundershower with gusts strong enough to blow garbage receptacles over sent the contest into a 40-minute delay and ended the evening for the starting pitcher.

The Sharks’ offense got off to a hot start and captured an early lead with Anthony Videtto’s two run moon-shot to left field in the third, making it 4-0 Sharks. They tacked on four more runs following the delay in the sixth, pushing their lead to eight.

But in the end eight runs weren’t enough to secure a victory.

Despite the deficit, the Mainers never stopped battling. In the eighth inning, after loading the bases with two walks and a single, Sterling Hayes smacked a single into left and put his team on the scoreboard. Sanford added four more runs on a string of singles — and just like that, the Mainers were within striking distance of taking the lead.

With two outs in the bottom half of the eighth and Sharks third basemen Jackson Raper on first, Nicholas Raposo ripped a shot into the gap in right-center field. With a golden opportunity to snag an insurance run, Raper raced around the diamond, but a nearly perfect relay from the Mainers outfield caught him at home plate, sending the game to the ninth with momentum in Sanford’s corner.

The Sharks called on their closer, Nathan Tellier to finish the job. Despite not allowing a run in five previous appearances, Tellier was rocked for three runs. Two were earned after an error put a man on for Sanford and the next batter, Drew DeMartino, hit a home run to right to tie the game.

After that, Mainer’s centerfielder Shane Marshall hit a single up the middle and scored the winning run on a Nick Howie double down the right field line — giving the Mainers their first lead of the game.

With the loss, the Sharks fell to 5-6 on the year.

Sunday night they lost 10-4 to the Danbury Westerners. They play Danbury again tonight at home.