Sunday Notes: Shaking the rust off

It was an inauspicious offensive start to the NECBL season, to say the least. Having arrived in Vermont, players from Upper Valley and Vermont struggled mightily at the plate out of the gate. Through the first six innings of the league's marquee season opener, neither offense had managed a hit. The Mountaineers rallied for a 2-0 win in the ensuing innings, but it points to a greater trend through the league's first 15 games.

The NECBL's pitchers are averaging just over a strikeout per inning, with 285 in 280 1/3 innings, and the hitters have a low .234 mark. It's obviously a small sample size, but it's 16 points down from last summer. It's expected, though. Vermont Mountaineers manager Joe Brown summed it up pretty well after the season opening win, saying, "I think what you saw tonight is an example of college kids not having swung a bat in a game in about two weeks, some of them three, some four - and great pitching."

"That’s what you’re going to get in this league, night in and night out. You have to do the little things to create the runs."

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The best start of the young season came Saturday night, as Sanford left-hander William Tribucher, a sophomore from Michigan, cruised to a win against Danbury. A season-high 82 game score, Tribucher went six scoreless innings and allowed just one hit while not issuing a walk and striking out six. He retired 15 straight at one point and left after sixth having thrown 71 pitches with his team up 6-0.

It was an impressive outing for Tribucher, who was used primarily as a reliever this spring. He made 23 appearances (three starts) for the Wolverines, striking out 37 in 39 innings of work. Tribucher led all freshmen in appearances and didn't allow an earned run in his first five appearances.

The Michigan-Sanford connection has been strong, as Tribucher is joined by another member of the Wolverines pitching staff. Right-hander Troy Miller struck out three of the four Ocean State batters he faced on Thursday. They're joined by teammates Johnny Slater in the outfield and second basemen Ako Thomas.

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Josh Weinreb, a journalist for the Valley News, is covering the Upper Valley Nighthawks in their inaugural season. Weinreb and the VN staff have provided some interesting insight on the process of launching and managing an expansion franchise in the NECBL, especially over the first few games. Here's a snippet of their coverage that was really interesting.

The batter’s boxes were too small and too close to home plate. Fans wandered past the unmarked ticket tents without paying, costing perhaps a couple hundred dollars in revenue. The hot dog vendor ran out of heated wieners in the second inning and the scoreboard went out for part of the sixth inning. 

None of which caused Noah Crane, the Upper Valley Nighthawks’ general manager, visible stress Saturday evening.

“Growing pains,” said the Lebanon resident, midway through his New England Collegiate Baseball League expansion franchise’s home opener. “We’ll figure it out.”

You can read more about the Nighthawks home field, the Maxfield Sports Complex, here. Weinreb also covered their home opener in detail and discussed the connection Nighthawks manager Nick Cenatiempo and Vermont's Joe Brown have. He also wrote a lengthy feature on Crane, the former Muskrats general manager, reflecting on the process of bringing the Nighthawks to the Upper Valley region.

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The MLB Draft was a success for the NECBL, with six alums taken on the first day, and countless others picked in the ensuing rounds. I'll have a post coming out with a complete list, but here's the league's rundown of the first three picks, coming in the first round.

The San Diego Padres used the 25th pick of the first round of the 2016 Major League Baseball (MLB) First-Year Player Draft to select Kent State University rising senior and left-handed pitcher Eric Lauer on Thursday, highlighting a night that saw six total New England Collegiate Baseball League (NECBL) alumni taken in the first two rounds and first two compensatory rounds of the MLB Draft.

Seven picks after Lauer – who was a member of the 2014 Keene Swamp Bats – the Los Angeles Dodgers used their 32nd overall pick to select former Newport Gull Will Smith, a catcher out of Louisville. But the Dodgers weren’t done with NECBL products, using their 36th overall pick in the “Lottery A” compensatory round to select former Laconia Muskrat Jordan Sheffield, a right-hander out of Vanderbilt.

The three of them raise the league’s total to 26 first-round draft selections who are NECBL alumni. Those selections also mark the ninth consecutive MLB Draft in which a product from The New England League was selected in the first round.

 Stay tuned for more coverage!