White River Junction
Denison might not be the dominant, late-game hero he was a year ago, when he led the NECBL with 63 hits in a league-high 46 games and was one of four Nighthawk representatives at the NECBL All-Star Game. Not yet, anyway. He tore a tendon in his left wrist in the last week of preseason that, after trying to play through it for 15 games, forced Denison to redshirt with the Trojans this spring. He returned to the Upper Valley on Monday intent on finding his game again.
On Tuesday afternoon, in a doubleheader against the Mystic Schooners at the Maxfield Sports Complex, Denison faced his first in-game pitches in four months. This time around, with the Nighthawks’ offense already an established force, Denison doesn’t need to step in and be a superstar. He has time to rediscover his game and retool his timing.
When he does, it’ll be first-place Upper Valley that benefits.
“I honestly felt pretty good until that one guy started throwing me curveballs,” Denison said after his season debut on Tuesday. “I hadn’t seen that in a little while. And the lefty that was throwing sidearm. That just threw me off.
“For me, it’s just like trying to get back into baseball,” he added. “I’ve sat out for so long. It’s just trying to get back into the game.”
Denison was hurt making a diving catch during practice a little less than a week before Troy’s first series of the spring, Feb. 17 at home against Xavier, and he admitted he pushed himself to play. He started 15 games for the Trojans, going 13-for-56 with seven walks, three doubles, nine RBIs and six runs before ending his season in late March.
“I tried to play through it; it just wasn’t happening,” he said. “At that point, we were just like, ‘It’s not going to go well; we can tell.’ So I just took the redshirt. … It was tough. You wanted to finish with those seniors.”
Nighthawks general manager Noah Crane had Denison on his radar before the season started; in the past, Crane has said guys who have sat out because of injury or to abide by NCAA transfer rules are unique in that they’re usually fresher and more eager than their counterparts coming off of a heavy spring workload. Luke Reynolds, the Southern Mississippi power hitter, is in a similar position, having not played in two years because of a transfer.
That Denison knows the team, the Upper Valley and the NECBL is an added bonus.
“His numbers obviously stand out; I thought he was the best player in the league last summer,” Crane said on Friday. “He’s just a great kid. It made perfect sense. If he got healthy on July 25, the last day we can sign him, we’d take him, or June 6 when we opened up. Whenever he wanted to come back, we’d have a spot for him.
“It was always a possibility, as long as he got cleared,” he added. “I talked to him all year long; I talk to all the guys. To turn a positive into a negative, I said, ‘Well, since you’ve got a redshirt year, you’ve got another year to play summer ball. If they clear you and you want to come, we’d love to have you come back.’ ”
What Crane didn’t know was that outfielder Grayson Padgett, from the University of Houston, would stay home this summer to nurse an ankle injury, forcing Upper Valley to play with only three outfielders on its roster. The Nighthawks have rotated infielder Connor Hood (Seton Hall) to the outfield out of necessity, but Denison’s arrival gives the Upper Valley coaching staff a little bit more breathing room.
“As we got closer to the season, I knew he was going to come; it was just going to be late June, early July,” Crane said. “That’s why we didn’t add another outfielder.”
It also gives the Nighthawks another lineup option. That’s an important factor with Southern Mississippi’s Matt Guidry going down with a left wrist injury that could force him to miss significant time, if not the rest of the summer.
“You have a guy like that hitting seventh or eighth in your lineup, that’s pretty scary,” Crane said. “It’s worth it for him to continue to rehab. He’s a good enough hitter; he’s professional about the way he does things. I’m not worried about him producing. That’ll come. Once that comes, he’s going to be the best seventh, eighth hitter in this league.”
The Troy, Ala., native sat out Friday’s 7-2 win over the Valley Blue Sox, a scheduled day off for an athlete still trying to get back into the swing of things, according to Upper Valley head coach Jason Szafarski. In his first four games, Denison is 3-for-14 with a run and three strikeouts. He admitted there’s still a long way to go before he’s back to 100 percent.
“Finding my timing off of a live pitcher, you can’t really do that by just doing BP,” Denison said. “Getting some confidence and getting myself acclimated back into the game before I get back into practice.”
Josh Weinreb can be reached at jweinreb@vnews.com or 603-727-3306.