White River Junction
Upper Valley began the rally in the eighth inning, scoring a run to climb to within two of the Keene Swamp Bats on Saturday night at Maxfield Sports Complex. But Swamp Bats pitcher Mike LaBeau, a Bellows Falls, Vt., native and a senior closer at Castleton University, shut the door with the final five outs to hand the Nighthawks their second straight loss, 6-4.
“Again, I thought we started off a little slow tonight,” said Nighthawks manager Nick Cenatiempo, his team now 6-7. “We weren’t very aggressive early on the starting pitcher (Keene’s Andrew O’Brien). We should have. It came back to get us a little bit.”
Bill Maier struggled in his third start of the season for the Nighthawks, giving up eight hits, six earned runs and one walk in four innings.
Keene did most of its damage in the top of the third inning. Maier loaded the bases with a walk to Keene’s Ryan Costello. Two pitches later, the Iona product gave up a two-run double to Parker Sniatynski that put the Swamp Bats ahead. They added to it one batter later off another two-run double, this time from Keene’s Jordan Howard. Maier gave up four hits to five batters, giving the Swamp Bats a commanding lead.
“I just wasn’t locating very well,” Maier said. “My fastball wasn’t moving like I wanted it to. I wasn’t locating very well and they were taking advantage of my mistakes.”
Dakota Edwards (University of Bridgeport) and Nick Jones (Kansas State) pitched the final five innings in relief, giving up only four hits between them.
All three pitchers combined for zero strikeouts Saturday night. The Nighthawks’ 80 strikeouts are a league low.
“We’ve seen it in pitching where some nights you’re going to have your stuff, some nights you’re not,” Cenatiempo said. “Billy (Maier) has been really good for us. I think everyone knows that. So the fact that his ball was a little bit up tonight, he didn’t have his best stuff. But he competes.”
Edwards entered the game with runners on first and second and no outs in the fifth inning, but kept the Keene offense at bay until Upper Valley’s offense could begin its comeback.
“I go back and forth, I don’t really have a ninth-inning guy,” Cenatiempo said. “I’m searching.”
The Nighthawks scattered eight hits and four runs against the Swamp Bats (9-5). Joey Denison (Troy University) led the way with two hits, including a double and a triple, an RBI and a run scored. Zack Canada (UNCW) scored a run, had two RBIs for the Nighthawks.
But for the Nighthawks, finding a timely hit with the game on the line has become somewhat of a puzzle.
“I’m not concerned,” Cenatiempo said. “What do you see? We’re the leading team in batting average. They know we can hit. … They’re not going to throw fast balls at us in tough situations. They’re going to spin us.”
LaBeau entered the game in the eighth inning with one out and Nightahwks’ runners on first and third. Charlie Concannon, who was 0-for-4 one night after hitting a home run and an RBI double in the comeback at the Valley Blue Sox, struck out swinging. James Morisano, Upper Valley’s catcher, grounded out to LaBeau to end the inning and the threat.
In the ninth, LaBeau battled nerves as Al Molina (Seton Hall) singled down the middle for the inning’s lead-off runner. But A.J. Walden (Alabama-Huntsville), pinch hitting for Walker Grisanti (0-for-4), struck out, Matt Maul (St. Josephs) popped out to center field and Alex Hanson, after Brian Mims made it to first in time, struck out swinging to end the game.
“We chipped away,” Cenatiempo said. “I thought we were going to get to him once that other reliever (LaBeau) came in. I thought that was our chance.”
Ryan Takacs (Manhattan) and Dylan Verdonk (Seton Hall) will get the starts this afternoon as the Nighthawks look to get back over .500 in a doubleheader against the Danbury Westerners at Maxfield. Game time for game one is 2:30 p.m.
Notes: Grayson Padgett (Houston), who led the league in hitting to begin the season, is now 0-for-8 in his last two games. Padgett said after the game that he’s disappointed with his performance over the last few games, mostly because he knows he can be better. “I am frustrated … but I’m not really worried about it,” he said. “It’s completely mental for me. A few at-bats here and I got in my own head.” Padgett said he talked with Cenatiempo and he would take tonight’s doubleheader off to collect himself and recover from some back trouble.