By Josh Weinreb

The neon green was Noah Crane’s idea. Everything else, for the most part, came from Stephanie Sohn.

Sohn, the girlfriend of Nighthawks manager Nick Cenatiempo, helped design the color scheme, logos and design components for Crane’s expansion NECBL franchise. With Cenatiempo tabbed as the team’s first coach, Sohn, a familiar face, became an easy choice to be part of getting the Nighthawks off the ground.

“I would say it took about two months to put everything together,” she said after Friday’s game against North Adams. “I know I sent him over a couple of sketches, and we went back and forth on color for a while. Really excited about the neon, which I think was his big push.”

Sohn, who works at a Boston furniture company, said her biggest obstacle was not letting the bird look too much like an eagle. The primary logo features a Nighthawks head, a baseball and three stars each representing each of Crane’s three children. Secondary logos include a capitalized “UV” in a stylized font, a Nighthawk spreading its wings and a Nighthawk claw holding a baseball, which is featured on Upper Valley’s caps this season.

“I came up with the moon-baseball kind of play-off,” Sohn said. “The stars I know Noah got excited about, so I put three of them for his three kids. It’s a nice, special touch.”

Friday was Sohn’s first game at the Maxfield Sports Complex, and she said seeing the logos she designed on posters, shirts and hats was a bit surreal.

“It’s so much fun,” she said. “I think the coolest part is the mascot. I’ve never seen one of those come to life starting from a sketch. That was really cool. … I’ve seen my stuff on apparel before, but to see it on a team and all the little kids running around. That was cool.”

Big Bats: Through seven games this season, no NECBL hitter has been more productive at the plate that Nighthawks outfielder Grayson Padgett.

A sophomore from the University of Houston, Padgett is batting .435 in six games played. He has amassed 10 hits, including a double, along with seven runs and two RBIs in 23 at-bats, walking four times and striking out only twice.

On Thursday, Padgett entered Nighthawks lore by hitting the team’s first home run against Winnipesaukee, a solo blast into left field at Robbie Mills Sports Complex in Laconia, N.H.

Joey Denison, from Troy University, is the seventh-leading hitter in the NECBL through seven games, accumulating four runs, nine hits, including a double and a triple, and two RBIs. He is hitting .360 in 25 at-bats.

Valley Blue Sox infielders Travis Jones, who is second in the league with eight runs, 12 hits, three home runs and a .400 batting average, and Kipp Moore, who is ranked third with five runs, 11 hits and a .393 batting average, visit Maxfield today.

Two-fer: Nighthawks’ hitters are ranked second in the league behind the Blue Sox in several categories. In seven games, Upper Valley has amassed 27 runs, 62 hits, 14 doubles, three home runs and 21 RBIs. North Adams leads the league with 10 home runs. Newport leads all NECBL teams with 51 runs scored.

Tidal Waves: Nighthawks pitchers as a staff are second in the league behind the Ocean State Waves. In 61 innings pitched, Upper Valley has allowed a league-low 21 runs, 19 earned, a league-low 41 hits. Collectively, the Nighthawks have recorded the fewest strikeouts in the league, 45, and also walked the fewest batters, 21.

All stats are through Friday’s games.

Josh Weinreb can be reached at jweinreb@vnews.com or 603-727-3306.