White River Junction
After suffering its first skid of the season, a three-game slide over the weekend, Upper Valley has stormed back with two decisive wins this week over the NECBL Northern Division-leading Keene Swamp Bats 10-7 on Tuesday, and the Newport Gulls, 13-4 on Wednesday, amassing 34 hits and 24 runs in each of its last two games combined.
Some of the offensive surge has been from some familiar faces. The University of Houston’s Grayson Padgett now leads the league in batting average (.432) and is tied for first in hits (16) through 10 games.
Joey Denison (Troy University) has been a consistent offensive threat with five hits, three doubles, four runs scored and three RBIs in Upper Valley’s most recent winning streak.
St. Petersburg College’s Alex Hanson, who has made an appearance in every game so far for the Nighthawks, has amassed four hits, two doubles, and five runs scored in his last two games.
But Upper Valley’s offense has also gotten a boost from newcomers Brian Mims and Zack Canada, infielders from North Carolina-Wilmington, Vanderbilt’s Walker Grisanti and Seton Hall shortstop Al Molina, all of whom have made their presences felt through their first week in Nighthawks uniforms.
“This is the lineup we had envisioned,” Nighthawks general manager Noah Crane said. “We weren’t going to get a ton of home runs, but a lot of doubles. We lead the league in doubles right now (29, nine more than the Newport Gulls). Against Newport we were banging doubles off the wall. That’s the club we envisioned in the fall. It’s nice we have all our people here, we expect our guys to step up and play well.”
The Nighthawks’ four new faces have combined for 16 hits and 11 runs thus far.
No player has made more of an impact than UNCW’s Mims, who through three games is batting .455 with two home runs, five hits, including two doubles, four runs scored and eight RBIs. For Crane and Upper Valley manager Nick Cenatiempo, Mims is very much a known commodity, having played for both with the NECBL’s Laconia (now Winnipesaukee) Muskrats last season.
“He changes our lineup,” Crane said of Mims. “He lengthens it. It allows us to move guys into spots where they are better suited. Because he played in the league last year, because of the incredible spring he had. Everyone in this league knows who he is. It affects how teams approach our lineup. … It really changes the dynamic of what we can do. Also, with Grisanti and Canada and Al Molina, we’re able to move a guy like Alex Hanson to the No. 2 spot. It’s been incredible.”
Mims, a junior next year at UNCW, was the NECBL’s 15th ranked hitter last year for the Muskrats, amassing 29 runs, 40 hits, five home runs and 20 RBIs in 36 games. He started all 60 games at second base for the Seahawks this past spring, batting .371 with 71 runs, 96 hits, including 17 doubles, 14 home runs and 64 RBIs.
Earlier this week, Mims and UNCW teammate Nick Feight were invited to the Team USA Baseball trail camp in Fullerton, Calif., which will visit Japan and Cuba for exhibition games through July. Mims will leave the Nighthawks on Sunday to try to make the team.
“I’ve known about it for a while,” Crane said. “Selfishly, I don’t want him to make the team. But, from his perspective, it’s an unbelievable opportunity to play for a prestigious team, to travel to Japan, do those sorts of things. It’s hard to pass up a chance to do that. It’s hard on us as a team, but we’ve got a lot of really good players. You can never replace someone of his caliber.”
“We’re not one-dimensional,” he added. “It’s not the Brian Mims show. As great as he is, Grayson Padgett is leading the league in hitting. … Zack Canada, Joey Denison. We’ve got a lot of guys producing. Brian makes us better. It’s tough to lose him.
“We can’t replace him, but it’ll be a tick less than what we are right now.”
Wait Til Next Year: Mike Jackson said he was looking forward to being on the Nighthawks coaching staff this season, even if he could only make it to home games at Maxfield Sports Complex. But his schedule, as he quickly realized, just didn’t allow for it.
“Noah was more than gracious in trying to accommodate with my schedule,” Jackson said on Thursday. “I was really looking forward to it.”
Jackson, the athletic director at Hanover High, was tabbed to be the Nighthawks’ bench coach this season. Jackson said he spoke Crane about the possibility of joining the staff next year.
“Of course, I apologized all over myself,” Jackson said with a laugh. “Noah said we’ll look at it again next year.”
Roster Move: East Tennessee State’s Blake Rowlett, the Nighthawks’ starting third baseman who played in each of the team’s first nine games, was released by the team earlier this week.
The decision, Crane said, was one made by the player, seeing a logjam at his natural second base position. Cenatiempo said on Thursday that Rowlett was becoming an automatic starter in the Nighthawks’ infield. Rowlett’s decision took both by surprise.
“Very much so,” Crane said. “I get it, if you have three at-bats, that would be disappointing to some peope. But he started every game for us at third base. … I talked to his coaches at East Tennessee, they were just as surprised as we were. We never really got the full story.”
Through nine games, Rowlett accumulated eight hits, one double, three runs, an RBI and eight walks for the Nighthawks.
Trainer’s Room: Nighthawks outfielder Trent Leimkuehler is still working his way back from a hamstring injury that he suffered running to first base in Upper Valley’s 7-2 over Winnipesaukee on June 12. Crane said that the Saint Louis University senior is still progressing but the team does not see the need to rush him back prematurely, particularly with outfielders Padgett, Denison, Hanson and Grisanti playing well.
Crane said the team hopes Leimkuehler, who was batting .417 in three games with five hits, two doubles and two runs, can return to the lineup next week.
Infield Shift: Clemson’s Grayson Byrd, the Nighthawks shortstop, has returned home after suffering a back injury earlier this summer.
Byrd had sat out this spring due to NCAA rules after transferring from LSU to Clemson. He had managed onlyone hit in four games for the Nighthawks, and was pulled mid-game last week in a road game against the New Bedford Bay Sox.
“Grayson got hurt early on,” Crane said. “He visited with some doctors and decided to go home and rest and rehab. If he’s healthy enough, there’s room for him to come back.”
Byrd’s absence opened the door for Seton Hall commitment Al Molina, a infield presence who has helped rejuvenate the Nighthawks offense. Coincidentally, Crane said he got a text message from Seton Hall’s coaches asking if Upper Valley had room for a middle infielder not long after he found out Byrd was on his way home.
“It worked out beautifully,” he said.
Going Deep: As far as the position players go, Crane said, the Nighthawks’ lineup is virtually set depending on if Mims makes Team USA next week. If he does, the Nighthawks still have plenty of infield talent to fill the void, though Crane will still try and grab a utility infielder for depth.
For now, the search is still on for some pitching depth though nothing has been sorted out just yet, he said.
Upper Valley will travel to Holyoke, Mass., today to take on the Valley Blue Sox before returning home for a three-game home stand against the Keene Swamp Bats on Saturday and a doubleheader at home against the Danbury Westerners on Sunday. Game time for Saturday’s game is 6:30 p.m.
Josh Weinreb can be reached at jweinreb@vnews.com or 603-727-3306.