White River Junction
Plymouth, which entered Tuesday’s visit to the Maxfield Sports Complex having won four of its last five outings, hit the ball all over the Nighthawks’ home turf in a 11-0 New England Collegiate Baseball League loss, the first time Upper Valley has been shut out this summer. DeRosa (3-3), in his sixth start, gave up nine hits, three runs and three walks in six innings. It was also the Pilgrims’ first shutout victory this season.
Upper Valley’s lineup is missing Southern Mississippi’s Matt Guidry, who went home with a wrist injury, and Marist’s Frankie Gregoire, who is expected to miss at least the next four games with a strained hamstring. Gregoire went home to Connecticut to rehab and is expected to return this weekend.
Until then, Upper Valley manager Jason Szafarski’s job just got a whole lot harder.
“You lose two middle-of-the-order bats, two guys who drive runs in … luckily, Frankie will be back. He’s doing well; he’s rehabbing right now,” Szafarski said. “The biggest thing is just trying to find ways to manufacture runs, trying to find ways to move runners over. What made us good earlier in the season, we’re going to have to see more of that. Not the team that hit five or six doubles and home runs.”
The Pilgrims (19-14) put 14 hits, all singles, in play against DeRosa, Jake Lochner (Missouri State) and Tanner Schimmoeller (Cincinnati) as they continue to chase Southern Division-leading Ocean State in the standings. Upper Valley fell to 22-11 and will travel to Sanford’s Goodall Park tonight.
“It was a 3-0 game; they didn’t do what they necessarily needed to do, hold them there and give us a chance. Before you blink, it’s 6-0, 8-0, 11-0,” Szafarski said. “You weren’t going to come back from that.”
Lochner, a Sullivan, Mo., native, returns home today and will not return; he finished his summer giving up 14 hits and nine walks in eight innings and seven appearances. Upper Valley still has not replaced bullpen arms Blake Deatherage (North Carolina-Wilmington) and Nate Witherspoon (Missouri State).
Meanwhile, Joey Denison, the Troy outfielder who returned to the Nighthawks last week, still is not 100 percent recovered from a wrist injury that forced him to sit out his spring season with the Trojans. He was 0-for-4 with a strikeout on Tuesday.
“We’ve got to find some bodies,” Nighthawks general manager Noah Crane said. “That’s tough. There are so many summer leagues now, there aren’t a lot of guys that are home or available. … We just need some depth. Our team is still good; it’s just one bad game.
“We’re flat right now,” he added. “We’re missing Frankie. Joey is not healthy. Guidry is not here. You’re missing some key bats.”
Upper Valley added Southern New Hampshire University outfielder Ethan Harris to its roster before Tuesday’s game, the first of several late-season additions expected to be made by Crane and the Nighthawks in the next week before the NECBL’s roster freeze next Tuesday. Harris, a Middleton, Mass., native who just finished his freshman year with the Penmen, had five hits with a double and scores three runs in seven games this spring.
“We’ve just got to fill some holes,” said Crane when asked if the team would still be looking for hitters if Guidry, Gregoire and Denison were present and healthy. “On the pitching side, yes. … I spend a lot of my time now contacting players, contacting schools, seeing if who they have. We just need some fresh bodies here for the rest of the season.”
Harris is expected to be available to play today at Sanford.
“Some guys are just trying to come in, fill in and step up,” said Southern Mississippi’s Luke Reynolds, who was 0-for-3 with a walk on Tuesday. “But we haven’t been hitting collectively like we normally do. We’re just in a little bit of a down spot right now. But we’re plenty capable of getting out of it.”
Until then, Upper Valley’s offense will have to figure itself out. The Nighthawks grounded into three double plays, managed only five hits and struck out four times against Plymouth.
“Offensively, we’ve been through these little ruts before,” Szafarski said. “It’ll turn back around. We’ve got Danny (Wirchansky, from Pace University) on the mound tomorrow. You know he’s going to give us a quality start. We should score a few runs to preserve the wins. The bullpen is fresh again.
“I’m not worried about it, but tomorrow is a big game. We haven’t lost three in a row all year, and I don’t expect to start tomorrow.”
Notes: Announced attendance was 388 at Maxfield. Upper Valley plays only three of its last 11 games at home before the playoffs begin in early August. … Al Molina (Seton Hall) fouled a ball off of a light pole in the seventh inning, a first for any Nighthawk hitter. … … The Valley Blue Sox (16-14), the team chasing Upper Valley for the top spot in the Northern Division, fell to the Keene Swamp Bats, 11-3, on Tuesday to remain 4½ games behind the Hawks. … Wirchansky, the reigning NECBL pitcher of the week, will make his sixth start of the summer tonight at Sanford. He is 4-0 with a league-low 0.84 ERA.
Josh Weinreb can be reached at jweinreb@vnews.com or 603-727-3306.