Nighthawks Drop a Pair in Doubleheader Against Sharks

By Thaddeus Sawyer

The character of a team is often revealed on the longest days of a season.

A day in which you board a bus at 8:30 a.m. to Cape Cod, cross over to Martha’s Vineyard via a 45-minute ferry ride, play 14 innings of baseball across two games on a dry June day, only to hop on a cramped fishing boat to get back to the mainland and finally arrive home via bus around 3 a.m. would surely qualify as just that.

The Nighthawks (3-5-1) may have dropped both games on Saturday’s doubleheader against the Martha’s Vineyard Sharks (8-1), game No. 1, 7-4, and game No. 2, 9-5, but in both contests the team showed a level of perseverance that not many would have displayed under those tiring circumstances.

That all started in the bottom of the seventh inning in game No. 1. With the Nighthawks serving as the designated home team and facing a 7-1 deficit, Upper Valley made it a ballgame in the end with their strongest two-out rally of the season thus far.

While the Sharks began the inning by securing two quick outs and would’ve been out of the inning had it not been for an error from first baseman Nick Rubino, center fielder Cole Huett made the Sharks pay for that mistake with a high fly ball to right that Carter Bentley let fall in front of him. That scored Frank Kelly, who had reached on the error and stolen second earlier in the at-bat.

The real damage came off the bat of catcher Cam Boardman. On the first pitch of the next at-bat, Boardman launched one over the left-field fence for the Nighthawks’ second home run of the season. The Nighthawks would go on to strand two more runners after a pair of base hits, bringing the first game to a close.

That wasn’t the last late push from the Nighthawks on the day, as they also put up a pair of runs in both the fifth and sixth innings of game No. 2 to make that final score less lopsided, scoring three unearned runs of their own on a couple of run-scoring groundouts and an error.

After allowing five earned runs in just two innings of work in his first outing of the summer, game No. 1 starter Eric Santaella struggled with command in the first but largely settled in through three innings of work.

After loading the bases on three straight two-out walks, third baseman Will Bavaro tapped a ball down the first base line that Santaella, a former infielder, sprinted over to, sliding to field it before attempting to throw to first for the inning-ending out. Instead, the right-hander sailed the throw over Bellarmine first baseman Jake Bell’s head, turning the swinging bunt into a bases-clearing error and three unearned runs for the Sharks.

Though the damage had been done, Santaella buckled down after that nightmare finish to the first to toss two more scoreless innings and keep his team within striking distance.

“[The] changeup was off today, so [I've] got to work on that and more command in the zone, but I think I'm heading in the right direction so I threw up a few zeros,” Santaella said.

The Nighthawks cut the lead to two with a Charley Magoulick sacrifice fly in the fourth, but the Sharks put up four more runs, three unearned, between the fifth and seventh innings.

Game No. 2 starter Kyle Batt didn’t fare much better, allowing three earned runs through 2 2/3 innings but also surrendering an additional four unearned.

Karl Ralamb cleaned up the mess, giving up two runs, one earned, in 3 1/3 innings of work to largely stem the bleeding.

Center fielder Griffin Crain had four of the Sharks’ RBIs on two hits, while first baseman Ryan Thompson added one on a home run. Third baseman Bryan Sornas and second baseman Jailen Watkins each pushed across a run as well.

For the Nighthawks, James Love continued his hot start with a three-hit day, reaching base in both games of the doubleheader to extend his on-base streak to nine games to start the season. 

Boardman had two RBIs on the day, while Huett, Bell and Charley Magoulick each had one.

After a well-deserved off day Sunday, the Nighthawks will be back in action on Monday at the Maxfield Sports Complex for their third showdown against the Keene SwampBats (4-2-1) in seven days.

First pitch is scheduled for 6 p.m. The game will stream live on NECBL+.