Nighthawks Fall to Mainers in Extra Innings on Opening Day

By Thaddeus Sawyer

Though the Nighthawks fell to the Sanford Mainers 5-4 on Thursday night after losing a lead late, nothing could overshadow the fact that Upper Valley baseball is back.

While a third straight Opening Day victory would have been ideal, Nighthawks manager Chase Allen understands that the only game that matters now is tomorrow’s.

“It's so cliché, but baseball's a game of failure,” said Allen, who made his managerial debut with the team on Thursday. “
So, we're not going to ride the highs and lows as a staff, and so that's our plan to not have a trickle down. We're not going to ride that roller coaster around. We got 42 games.”

Holding a 4-1 advantage with just three outs to go, it looked like the Nighthawks were going to get in the win column. That was before four straight two-out singles for the Mainers knotted the ballgame up and sent it into extra innings.

First baseman Brennan Staubley’s two-RBI base hit tied the game, while center fielder Nick Zampieron added a run as well. They’d scored their first run on a passed ball an inning earlier.

Despite a pair of strikeouts to lead off the frame, it looked like the Nighthawks might grab that lead right back in the top of the tenth when University of Hartford catcher Cam Boardman sent his second single of the day into left field.

Starting the inning on second as Upper Valley’s ghost runner, Bellarmine University infielder Jake Bell decided to test the arm of left fielder Nater Wachter and rounded third. Wachter’s throw cut down Bell at home, keeping the game tied heading into the bottom of the frame.

It didn’t take long for the Mainers to put the game away, with designated hitter Troy Carpenter’s leadoff single easily scoring University of Maine teammate Albert De La Rosa for the walk-off victory.

Though Mainers starter Josh Kopetski labored through three uneven innings, giving up all four of the Upper Valley runs and allowing six hits, the Sanford bullpen kept the home team in the game.

Samuel Young tossed three shutout innings, while Kevin Brown, Jasper Nadel, TJ Curley and Andrew Kapica each threw a scoreless frame. Kapica earned his first win of the year.

In contrast to the Mainers’ late push, the Nighthawks didn’t score a run after the third inning.

In the first, St. Joseph’s University outfielder Alex Kelsey overcame a two-strike count to float a soft single into shallow center field for the Nighthawks’ first hit of the season.

An at-bat later, Kopetski spiked a wild pitch with Kelsey already in motion, allowing the center fielder to move up to third after a stolen base. That led to Bell plating the game’s first run with an RBI single into center.

In the bottom of the frame, it looked like the Mainers were about to steal that run back. After Staubley singled to put a runner on first, De La Rosa crushed a ball toward the left-field corner that had extra bases written all over it. With the ball tailing toward the foul pole, the drive landed just foul in the bushes a few yards left of the line.

With De La Rosa instead reaching via a hit by pitch and Carpenter doing the same a batter later, Nighthawks starter Mateo Wells was left facing a bases-loaded jam with one out.

Wells didn’t blink.

Throwing six of his next seven pitches for strikes, the right-hander sat down both corner outfielders Wachter and Brooks Perez swinging to escape the inning and maintain the lead.

“He was making in-game adjustments,” Allen said. “You could tell he was pretty amped up in the first inning and then settled in from there and was just making the adjustment. He didn't have a slider early, which, if you ask him, is his best pitch, and then he started to find it in the later innings and you started to see more strikeouts.”

That would end up being the most traffic Wells allowed all evening, as the High Point University pitcher tossed 4 2/3 scoreless innings before exiting after reaching his pitch limit for the day. Wells punched out eight Mainers, all swinging, and walked just two batters.

With Wells on the mound, the Nighthawks lineup supplied run support from top to bottom.

In the top of the second with two outs, Bellarmine left fielder Cole Huett smacked a line drive toward the right-field gap that rocketed past the outstretched glove of Perez in right. Huett slid into third without a throw and William & Mary first baseman Anthony Greco walked to leave runners on the corners for second-year Nighthawk, Nick Quagliato.

Quagliato grounded a ball hard up the middle, though De La Rosa snared the ball, leaving the shortstop and Greco in a foot race for second. Greco won out, allowing Huett to cross home and extend the lead to two.

Not to be outdone, Eastern Illinois University third baseman James Love walloped a triple to the wall in center to leadoff the third, with the ball getting caught up at the wall and giving the infielder a chance to reach third. St. Joseph’s shortstop Tim Dickinson followed that up with an RBI double to extend the lead to four.

In relief of Wells, Bellarmine pitcher Karl Ralamb pitched 2 1/3 scoreless innings as the first man out of the bullpen, finding the zone on 18 of his 24 pitches.

On the day, Love led the Nighthawks with three hits, while Kelsey reached base three times. Both Kelsey and Boardman had a pair of hits.

The Nighthawks will get another chance at earning their first win of the season on Friday as they travel to Rhode Island to take on the Newport Gulls. First pitch at historic Cardines Field is scheduled for 6:35 p.m. Fans can stream the game live on ESPN+.

“These guys are great,” Allen said. “It's great to see them be on the field. Obviously, we weren't on the winning side, but just great to be out here with them. We'll get back on the bus and [it’s] a new day tomorrow.”