WHITE RIVER JUNCTION — Saving his team for the upcoming Vermont Summer Baseball League playoffs, White River Junction Junior Nighthawks coach Justin Devoid gave his reserves the playing time in a regular season-closing 6-2 loss to Brattleboro on Tuesday night at the Maxfield Sports Complex.
WRJ (12-4) entered the contest in a statistical tie with southern rival Lakes Region for the second seed in the upcoming 13-team tournament. Since the top three squads get first-round byes, the Junior Nighthawks were only playing for who bats last should they and Lakes Region meet in the VSBL semifinals this weekend. Maxfield is hosting the league semis on Saturday and the title game on Sunday. (Lakes Region beat Manchester, 16-0, in Fair Haven, Vt., on Tuesday night to clinch the second seed.)
As it is, Devoid will go into a Friday home quarterfinal with his pitching set. He split Tuesday’s workload between John Kasten, Ryland Richardson and Kyle Hamilton, leaving his regulars fresh for whatever the postseason may bring.
“Even if we’re the 2 seed, at the end of the day you’re going to be playing the 3 seed,” Devoid said. “I wanted to get those kids a game to play. They’ve been coming to practice every day, working hard like everybody else. You want to give them some at-bats and some time on the field. And, honestly, I thought they did well tonight.”
Kasten (Hartford High) struggled out of the gate, walking the first two batters and suffering infield errors as Brattleboro (9-7) jumped to a 5-0 lead after 1½ innings. Richardson (Windsor/Norwich U.) settled things down with three solid frames, and Hamilton (Hartford) retired six of the seven batters he faced late.
Their work means WRJ will be able to put ace Rob Slocum (Windsor/Norwich U.) on the mound to start Friday’s quarterfinal, although Devoid said he hopes to keep him to the 30-pitch minimum that would allow him to throw again, if needed, should the Junior Nighthawks make the VSBL title game.
Aaron Petrie and Chris Frost opened the contest with walks for Brattleboro, moving up on a wild pitch. Jack Rattison’s grounder turned into an error to score Petrie, Adam Newton delivered Frost with a sacrifice fly, and Turner Clemm produced an RBI infield single for a 3-0 lead. Petrie and Frost singled and scored again in the second for a 5-0 advantage.
Brattleboro played as if on a mission, and it was. The visitors clinched a first-round tournament home game on Thursday with the victory.
The Junior Nighthawks showed some life in the home third. Richardson reached on a force play, advancing on a Nick Martin (Hartford) walk and scoring on a throwing error when Brattleboro tried to turn a grounder from Alex Bushway (Hartford) into a double play. Jacob Dwinell (Hartford) then drilled an RBI double to the right-center gap to cut the deficit to 5-2.
Newton legged out a hustle double to open the fifth for Brattleboro, coming home on a Zinabu McNeise sac fly. Dwinell robbed the visitors of two more runs with a spectacular shoetop snare of a sinking Greg Fitzgerald liner to end the frame.
Newton excelled on defense at shortstop for Brattleboro, making one unassisted putout and compiling six assists, one of which set up an inning-ending double play in the WRJ sixth.
“Their shortstop is pretty good,” Devoid admitted. “We can’t hit it to him six or seven times a game.”
Devoid has his plan set for Friday. After that, he’ll live by the one-game-at-a-time mantra he’s been preaching all summer.
“It doesn’t matter who’s on the other side of the diamond — whether you’re playing the Red Sox or in middle school,” Devoid said, “we still have to score some runs, throw strikes and make outs.”
Friday’s quarterfinal, against as yet-to-be-determined opponent, will start at 5:30 p.m.
Weare 13, Anglers 7: The Upper Valley Anglers 17Us couldn’t fully erase an early 6-0 deficit in New England Independent Baseball League action at Lebanon High.
Weare’s first five batters reached base and scored in the first inning. Down 6-0, the Anglers scored four times in the home third to close within two runs, with Ben Katz (Lebanon), Aidan Yates (Lebanon), Dom Van Leare-Nutting (Fall Mountain) and Cole Fabry (Lebanon) doing the honors. Upper Valley would get no closer.
The Anglers host Souhegan on Thursday.
Greg Fennell can be reached at gfennell@vnews.com or 603-727-3226.