White River Junction
Whatever it is, it isn’t working for the Upper Valley Nighthawks, who on Tuesday night dropped their fifth straight game, 7-5 to the Newport Gulls at the Maxfield Sports Complex.
The Nighthawks are 9-13 through 22 games, reaching the halfway point of their inaugural NECBL campaign that has abruptly dissolved into a mad scramble to find a cure.
“It’s not an easy fix at all,” Cenatiempo said. “It’s a tough question. Our team in general needs to do a better job of executing. We just need to clean up some things and we’ll be fine.”
Cenatiempo pointed to defense and situational hitting as areas to clean up, though he said he still thinks his team is due for a breakout stretch.
Signs of life may have poked through late in Tuesday’s game. For the first time in less than a week, Upper Valley showed some late-game resiliency with a three-run rally with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, the Gulls leading 7-2.
Joey Denison (Troy) started off with a single to bring home Al Molina (Seton Hall) from third. Trent Leimkuehler (Saint Louis) followed up with a blast into deep right-center field, a two-RBI triple that cut the deficit to two runs.
Walker Grisanti (Vanderbilt) struck out swinging to end the rally.
“We got crushed the last three nights out and then tonight we got beat,” Nighthawks third baseman Canada said. “They got ahead of us early, but we scratched back and made it a competitive game. I think as a team, we’re all kind of fed up.”
“When you’re fighting back down six every single game, it’s pretty tough to win in this league,” he added. “Especially when they have momentum on their side.”
The Nighthawks had their chances, particularly with the bases loaded in the bottom of the first inning, a 1-0 lead on the scoreboard with power hitters A.J. Walden (Alabama-Huntsville) and Charlie Concannon (St. Joseph’s) up to bat. Walden and Concannon struck out to end the inning.
Upper Valley left nine runners on base in the loss on Tuesday and have left a combined 36 runners on base in the losing streak.
“I’m happy with the way we played today. I thought we competed really well,” Cenatiempo said. “I thought we just didn’t take advantage of some of the opportunities we had early in the game. … We had four chances, five, with runners in scoring position to cash in.”
“We need to do a better job of putting a ball, a hard contact ball, just in play,” he added. “Try to generate something.”
Reilly (La Salle), dealing with elbow soreness in his throwing arm, earned the loss with allowing five hits, five runs (only two earned), and one strikeout in 2 innings. Wes Engle (Texas State) wasn’t much better, giving up another two earned runs, one hit and three walks in 1 innings. For the second straight game in as many days, Upper Valley used five different pitchers on the mound, all for less than three innings.
“I don’t really blame the defense,” Reilly said. “I just think when I made good pitches, they were able to fight them off and do something with it. And when I made bad pitches they capitalized on it. … I needed to pitch better. It’s all on me. It’s really frustrating.”
Newport answered the early 1-0 deficit by tying the game in the second inning and blowing things wide open in the third. The Gulls’ Charlie Carpenter, Ben Breazeale and Trey Harris all earned RBIs in consecutive at-bats. Upper Valley gave up four hits and four runs in the top of the third inning, and hurt themselves with an error on second baseman Molina.
The Nighthawks have committed an error in every game in the losing streak, 13 in all, including six in a 7-0 loss last Friday against the Winnipesaukee Muskrats. Upper Valley committed two on Tuesday.
“We all like each other, I think we all like playing together, it’s just that a lot of us are gassed. We’re playing every day,” Canada said. “It’s just more of a mental thing. We have to find a way to come out and hammer down for nine innings and play good defense.”
Upper Valley pitchers allowed six leadoff batters to reach base, including two doubles. Newport combined for nine hits. The Nighthawks had their bright spots offensively. Denison was 2-for-3 with two runs scored and two RBIs.
Cordes Baker (USC Lancaster) will take the mound for Upper Valley on the road tonight at the Plymouth Pilgrims, the third of seven games in seven days for the Nighthawks. Game time is 6:30 p.m.
The Nighthawks will return home Thursday to face the Vermont Mountaineers at Maxfield Sports Complex.
Notes: Six batters for Upper Vallley failed to register a hit in Tuesday’s loss. … Three reinforcements arrive in the Upper Valley: including catcher Lukas Ray from South Carolina Upstate, pitcher Avery Fliger from Kansas City Community College and second baseman Austin Embler from UNC Greensboro.
Josh Weinreb can be reached at jweinreb@vnews.com or 603-727-3306.