After notching 24 wins, which tied the second-most regular-season victories in club history, the Upper Valley Nighthawks were knocked out of the New England Collegiate Baseball League playoffs in the opening round over the weekend.
The Nighthawks were swept in their three-game series by the Danbury Westerners, falling 5-3 at Maxfield Sports Complex on Saturday and 7-2 on Sunday at Rogers Park in Danbury, Conn.
“We had a solid season,” Nighthawks manager Chase Allen said in a telephone interview. “(We) put ourselves in a good spot to host the first game of the playoffs. … I’m proud of the guys for setting that up for themselves.”
To Allen, game one came down to Danbury playing a cleaner nine innings than his squad did.
The Westerners jumped out to a 4-0 lead by the end of the top of the fifth inning, but the Nighthawks made things interesting.
Upper Valley cut its deficit to two in the bottom of the sixth thanks to an RBI single from Kyle Langley (James Madison) and an RBI double from Nick Quagliato (Boston College).
Bradford, Vt., native Cameron Boardman, who is leaving Division III University of Hartford for the New Jersey Institute of Technology in D-I as a graduate transfer, made the game 4-3 in the bottom of the seventh with an RBI double.
However, Upper Valley could not complete the comeback. Danbury’s Ryan Martin hit a solo shot to left in the top of the ninth to put the Westerners up 5-3, and the Nighthawks could not plate a run in the final half of the frame.
“Trey (Sejnoha/Dartmouth) gave us a solid start; they kind of singled him to death,” Allen said. “They had some aggressive baserunning which put them in scoring position, and then they had the timely hits.
“It was a solid baseball game. I was proud of the way the guys competed, but Danbury just played cleaner.”
Trailing in the series 1-0, the Nighthawks packed up the bus and headed on a four-hour trek to western Connecticut for Sunday’s game.
Things looked good early for Upper Valley as it trotted out to a 2-0 lead in the first frame thanks to the Dartmouth duo of Ethan Brown and Alejandro Puig, who each reached base and drove in a run on a fielder’s choice.
The Nighthawks’ lead was short-lived as Danbury’s bats began to wake.
The Westerners hit three two-run bombs in the contest: one in the bottom of the second to tie the game, another in the bottom of the fourth to take the lead and another in the bottom of the fifth to make the contest 6-2 in their favor.
Danbury would add another run in the bottom of the eighth to set the game’s final tally as the Nighthawks could not muster any additional offense.
“I thought we were kind of going to come alive offensively. … Ultimately, (we) didn’t have enough firepower to keep it close enough and didn’t have enough hitting to have the late-game comeback,” Allen said.
Despite his squad’s elimination, Allen said that he was proud of the way his team played in its two postseason contests.
