White River Junction
Sunday’s split-decision NECBL doubleheader against the exhausted Danbury Westerners illustrated how the season’s third week has gone for the Nighthawks. Upper Valley took the first game, 8-5, keyed by a Joey Denison grand slam, but dropped the latter, 5-1, against Danbury sidearm pitcher Ryan Testani at Maxfield Sports Complex. The Nighthawks sit at 7-8 through their first 15 games.
“I think they’re pressing a little bit,” said Upper Valley assistant coach Matt Lynch. “For the most part, we have a lot of kids that want to be good players. We have a lot of good players, and they just want to get the job done.
“Most games we play, we’re the team that’s crushing the ball more than the other,” he added. “They want to be that guy. I tell them sometimes a walk or a hit-by-pitch or a bloop single, you don’t have to be this Superman, home-run hitting machine. Just do the job.”
Offensive production has been off and on through the Nighthawks’ last six games after Upper Valley dropped three straight home games last weekend.
On Tuesday against the Keene Swamp Bats and Wednesday on the road against the Newport Gulls, Upper Valley amassed 34 hits and 24 runs in 18 innings, powered by the presence of its newcomers. Friday at the Valley Blue Sox and Saturday at home against Keene, hitting was sporadic, forcing the Nighthawks’ offense to mount back-to-back late-inning comebacks. Upper Valley fell short on both occasions.
Sunday was a little bit of both. The Nighthawks strung together 13 hits in game one against Danbury, taking advantage of their opponent’s fatigue after the Westerners played on the road Saturday night in a walk-off loss to the Vermont Mountaineers and stayed in a hotel overnight.
Upper Valley managed only seven hits in game two. The Westerners put 10 hits in play in the nightcap, including two doubles and a triple.
But one of the Nighthawks’ biggest problems thus far, head coach Nick Cenatiempo said, is the team’s lack of a closing pitcher.
Nighthawks sidearmer Jarod Yoakam (Cincinnati) entered game one in the eighth inning holding on to a 8-1 lead, but gave up four runs, including a three-run bomb over the left field fence to give Danbury life.
“I expect us to play better, be more consistent,” Cenatiempo said. “Defensively we’ve been great. … I think, offensively, we’re going to get better. We need to keep playing, it’s coming along. I’ve told you before, I’m still waiting for someone in this bullpen to take ownership of that back-end role.”
Denison, the Troy, Ala., native, hit a two-out grand slam in the bottom of the eighth inning, the first home run by a Nighthawks batter at home this season, to blow Sunday’s early game against the Westerners wide open. Denison finished the game as Upper Valley’s hottest hitter, going 5-for-5 at the plate with two doubles and two runs scored in the opener.
“I guess I had a good breakfast,” Denison said.
Ryan Takacs (Manhattan) earned the win in his first start on the mound for Upper Valley. With his family watching from the Maxfield stands, Takacs scattered nine hits, one earned run and a walk while recording four strikeouts in seven innings of work.
“I thought it was good,” Takacs said. “I just know I was trying to go as long as I can because I know we had two games today, so we really wanted to save on the pitching. I really just wanted to go as long as I can to ride it out.”
The Nighthawks got on the board first with two runs in the second inning. Catcher A.J. Walden (Alabama Huntsville) scored on a fielder’s choice, and Trent Leimkuehler (Saint Louis), in his first game back from a hamstring injury, drove in Al Molina (Seton Hall).
Danbury climbed back to within 2-1 on an RBI single from Nick Gatewood (Georgia State) in the top of the fourth inning. The Nighthawks’ defense orchestrated two ground ball outs to end the threat.
Yoakam struggled after entering the game for Takacs. In the eighth, the Marysville, Ohio, native gave up a double to Danbury’s Ryan Nelson, a wild pitch that allowed Nelson to advance to third and a walk to Giovanni Dingcong, but forced pop-ups to end the inning unscathed.
Yoakam was one strike away from getting out of the ninth inning before Nelson hit his three-run homer. Yoakam walked the next batter, James Venuto, and advanced the runner to second on a wild pitch before Cenatiempo was forced to pull him.
Jones entered and struck out the next batter, Dingcong, swinging.
Dylan Verdonk gave up six hits, two earned runs and one walk in Sunday night’s game two loss, though the Netherlands native was not given the kind of run support his counterpart, Takacs, was given in the opener. Upper Valley scattered seven hits against the tricky sidearmer Testani, though Cenatiempo said fatigue was certainly a factor.
“Three games in 24 hours,” he said. “You see it.”
Testani retired 11 straight Upper Valley batters between the second and sixth innings, recording four strikeouts and one unearned run in seven innings of work. The Nighthawks’ lone run came in the sixth inning off an error from the Danbury shortstop.
The Westerners took advantage of the change in momentum after their late-inning rally in game one. The Nighthawks left six on base in the final three innings.
“You want to win this game,” Cenatiempo said. “But I also have a divisional game tomorrow against Sanford. I need to take two against Sanford, so I need to save Billy Layne (Seton Hall) and Lau (St. Joseph’s). They didn’t throw today. I need some of my better arms to be around.”
The Nighthawks travel to Sanford to take on the Mainers (7-8) tonight at 6:30 p.m., with Mike Coss (Marist) starting on the mound for Upper Valley.
Josh Weinreb can be reached at jweinreb@vnews.com or 603-727-3306.