The Nighthawks bullpen sits far down the third-base line at Maxfield Sports Complex. To the Upper Valley coaching staff, it might as well be on another planet.

Upper Valley’s bullpen was given the nickname “Dirty Dave and the Boys,” though it’s not clear when the name took hold or why Dave — being David Sampson, of Plymouth State — was singled out as the ringleader.

No matter where it came from, it seems this summer’s Nighthawks’ bullpen group is a unique bunch that even Upper Valley head coach Jason Szafarski can’t seem to place his finger on.

“I had that from the first time (Sampson) threw a bullpen (session),” Szafarski said on last week’s episode of the Valley News Hawks Talk podcast. “I think it stems from the movie The Other Guys. That’s where I originally got it from. … The whole thing kind of took off. They’ve got an Instagram page run by Will Carnley. They’ve got a whole social hierarchy based on who’s good at spades.

“I like to go down there an hour before the game, they don’t even talk to me,” he added with a laugh. “They just give you a head nod. They act like I’m not even there. Tom (Hudon, Nighthawks pitching coach) is their cult leader.”

Nicknames or not, Upper Valley’s bullpen has been stellar so far this season. Closer Cory Gill (Troy) is ranked fourth in the league with four saves; he also got his first win in Thursday’s victory over Keene. Sean Frontzak (Saint Louis) has one save and nine strikeouts in 10 innings pitched. Carnley (Troy) is seventh on the team with 11 strikeouts. Paxton Stover (Vanderbilt) has allowed only one hit in six innings.

“They’ve got to be loose. They don’t know if they’re going to pitch that day,” Szafarski said. “They’re ready. I trust those guys. Under Tom, they’re under good leadership and they understand what they’re ultimately there for.”

Added Nighthawks hitting coach Mat Pause: “T-shirts are on the way.”

A Batty Ballpark: Alumni Field, home of the Keene Swamp Bats, is one of the few parks in the New England Collegiate Baseball League with a reputation for wacky outfield dimensions. For hitters, it’s a dream, a chance to pad your batting average with home runs on what would normally be a routine fly ball.

For pitchers, Alumni Field spells trouble, a park in which every fly ball could hit the red barn just beyond right field or a car in the parking lot behind center field.

Thursday night was no different. Nighthawks catcher Ryan Jeffers (North Carolina-Wilmington) found a pitch he liked leading off the fourth inning on a 1-1 count, launching a fly ball into deep left field with enough speed and height to, seemingly, land outside Keene’s quirky outfield fence for Jeffers’ second home run of the season.

That is, until Swamp Bats left fielder Mitchell Webb (Georgia) climbed the fence, reached over with his glove and robbed Jeffers of his apparent homer.

Jeffers was rounding first base as he watched Webb record the first out. The announced crowd of 1,275 erupted. Bill Murphy, from Upper Valley’s ESPN radio affiliate, leaped up and began making comparisons between Webb and the Los Angeles Angels’ Mike Trout.

Jeffers trotted back to the visiting dugout, took off his helmet and raised it in the air toward Webb in left field — a sign of acknowledgement that it was one heck of a grab.

Dry Spell: The Winnipesaukee Muskrats’ Robbie Mills Field has been operating without running water since the season began thanks to a burst pipe that has yet to be repaired. Public bathrooms in its press box-concession stand behind home plate have been closed since May, forcing the Muskrats to use temporary, portable toilets this season. Muskrats general manger Kristian Svindland said that money has been raised and paperwork has been filed to get the pipe fixed, and he’s hopeful work will begin in this week.

The Commish: NECBL commissioner Sean McGrath took in Thursday’s action between the Nighthawks and Swamp Bats behind home plate at Alumni Field.

McGrath and the NECBL general managers made a number of changes before the season began — getting rid of the play-in format for playoff-seeding tiebreakers, shrinking the playoffs to six teams from eight, moving the NECBL All-Star game to the end of July from mid-season and signing with a new umpire association.

McGrath said it’s too early to tell if these changes will have their desired effect — namely, keeping NCAA Division I athletes in the league for as long as possible — and suggested that more changes may be coming ahead of next summer, as well.

Head Count: Upper Valley’s attendance, according to the NECBL website, has steadily increased to an average of 286 fans per game through 14 home games at Maxfield Sports Complex, helped by a surge in attendance since mid-June.

Last season, the Nighthawks averaged 434 fans per game in 23 regular-season home games — ninth out of 13 teams. The Newport Gulls lead the league in attendance this summer, with an average of 2,005 fans per game in 12 home games.

So Very Honored: Nighthawks outfielder Frankie Gregoire, from Marist, was named Collegiate Summer Baseball’s Hitter of the Week for three games between June 25 and July 2. He was 7-for-12 with three home runs and seven RBIs for the Nighthawks and will receive a T-shirt from the Great Lakes Bat Company as a reward.

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