Montpelier
It’s a state of confusion that the Nighthawks coaching staff has started to become all too familiar with.
Vermont played nine innings of nearly flawless baseball Friday night, as the Mountaineers (12-15) finished off the final 2 innings of Thursday’s originally scheduled game, 8-1, and shutout the slumping Nighthawks, 6-0, in 7½ innings of game two, which was cut short due to a thunderstorm that covered the field with rain and the occasional lightning strike.
The Nighthawks are now 10-19 this summer, losers of their last five games in a stretch of Northern Division foes that manager Nick Cenatiempo said would define his team’s season. Upper Valley has lost 11 of its last 12 games dating back to a 10-3 victory against the Mystic Schooners on June 29 and fell to 4-10 away from the Maxfield Sports Complex.
“They just hit me real well,” Takacs said with a laugh and a shrug. “I guess they just saw my ball really well or something because I really didn’t feel that bad. They just hit me real well, I guess.”
What’s worse, Upper Valley now sits firmly in last place in the Northern Division and holds the league’s worst record.
General manager Noah Crane’s Nighthawks were designed for power hitting. Upper Valley leads the NECBL with 56 doubles and is tied for third with five triples. But back-to-back losing streaks, with a July 8 victory against North Adams squished in the middle, has created a lineup of hard hitters looking to do too much to keep their team afloat.
Of the Hawks’ 21 outs in the game two loss, Upper Valley hitters popped up into easy fly balls on nine occasions. Ten of those outs were strikeouts by Mountaineers starter TJ Santiago, who went 5 innings, recorded seven strikeouts and allowed only two hits. Michael Fairchild recorded three strikeouts in relief for Vermont.
“I think we’re just tired, to be honest,” Nighthawks hitting coach Matt Lynch said. “Mentally, physically, trying to grind out at-bats best we can, but losing takes away a little bit of that fight. … The main thing is, we’re tired. We’re getting pitched the same, we try to make those adjustments. But we’re a doubles, power-hitting team.”
“We know what’s coming,” he added. “We just need to get back to committing to it. Staying away from our home run pitch, trying to get too big. Got to just look for that hard line drive.”
Upper Valley made six hits in game two, three in the form of a sixth-inning uprising that loaded the bases with one out and consistently strong hitters Joey Denison and Trent Leimkuehler at the plate. Both struck out swinging.
To change the hitting mentality, Upper Valley’s coaching staff tried changing its batting practice routine. This week, the Nighthawks competed in a low, line-drive competition to keep its batters from hitting into too many pop-ups.
“Just to focus more on the low line-drive,” Lynch said. “That’s what is going to get us hits, competing with two strikes. It’s just changing it up from our normal routine.”
Takacs put Upper Valley in an early hole, giving up eight hits, five earned runs, one walk and recording only one strikeout in two innings, suffering his second loss of the season.
The Jackson, N.J., native allowed the Mountaineers to jump to a 1-0 lead on a wild pitch that hit the backstop and allowed Michael Osinski to score.
Vermont piled on with another run in the first inning, a single run in the second and three runs in the third to put Upper Valley in an early hole. Marist’s Mike Coss entered the game with runners on second and third with no outs in the bottom 3rd inning, allowing only two hits, two walks and recording four strikeouts in four innings of work.
“They put out some guys that were tough on us, but in the end, we struggled to cash through and string hits together. That’s what happened,” Cenatiempo said. “Overall, you’re just trying to get these guys their at-bats and watch them get better with their at-bats.”
For the Nighthawks, a two-day NECBL All-Star break through Tuesday might be a blessing. Upper Valley has been hit hard with the injury bug of late, with its better offensive players dealing with nagging injuries. While Cenatiempo admitted time off is needed, days in which his team is on the field has not helped their cause of the last 20 days.
“I think it’s just the schedule. It’s hard for teams to get hot when you play that many games in a short amount of time,” Cenatiempo said.
Upper Valley will take on the North Division-leading Sanford Mainers on the road tonight before the Nighthawks can take their All-Star break.
Sanford is 8-2 over its last 10 games and heads into tonight on a three game winning streak. Bill Maier, Upper Valley’s top starter, will get the call.
Notes: The Mounatineers announced a 1,433 attendance Friday night at Recreation Field. Vermont is ranked fourth among NECBL teams for attendance, averaging 1,081 per game. Upper Valley is ranked ninth, averaging 366 fans per game. … Alex Hanson was the Nighthawks’ lone bright spot Friday, going 2-for-4. Denison, Upper Valley’s offensive leader, was 0-for-3 with two strikeouts.
Josh Weinreb can be reached at jweinreb@vnews.com or 603-727-3306.