Game 27+28 Recap: Mountaineers sweep Nighthawks in rainy twinbill

TJ Santaigo struck out seven and allowed just two hits over 5 1/3 in the Game 2 win.

By surging into the All-Star break as one of the hottest teams in baseball, the Vermont Mountaineers have positioned themselves to make a run at a third straight Northern Division title in the final two weeks of the season.

After a nightmarish 2-11 start that saw them fall seven games out of first place, many believed that it simply wasn’t Vermont’s year. Weak hitting, an abundance of errors and bullpen woes saw the Mountaineers in jeopardy of even getting a chance to defend their league title in August.

Now, though, Vermont has won eight of its first 10 games in July, its latest victories coming in a doubleheader against the slumping Upper Valley Nighthawks with an 8-1 win in the opener before rolling to a rain-shortened 6-0 win in Friday’s nightcap.

“I told these guys, they’ve played the best baseball in the league the past three weeks,” Vermont manager Joe Brown said. “We don’t really care about the standings, we just need to keep playing well and we’ll earn an opportunity.”

The sweep puts the Mountaineers just two games under .500 and suddenly makes them contenders for a top spot in the division after a 5-13 June.

Upper Valley can’t say the same. The Nighthawks’ agonizing losing streak stretched to five games and they have managed just one win in their last 11 games. Excluding the one win, Upper Valley’s offense has been nonexistent. They’ve been shut out three times and scored a lone run in three other losses.

TJ Santiago made it look easy in the nightcap for Vermont on Friday, needing just 53 pitches to throw 5.1 scoreless innings in his longest start of the summer. He retired the first nine batters he faced and scattered two hits while striking out a season-high seven. He evened his record at 2-2 and had plenty of run support.

“He was on his game,” Brown said. “That was fun to watch. Things are going well, but we definitely need this break. We’re beaten up and tired, but we’ll come out ready to go with three games at home.”

Vermont scored two runs in the first, one in the second and three more in the third, jumping out to a 6-0 lead before Upper Valley had even recorded a hit. A wild pitch from Nighthawks starter Ryan Takacs brought in the first run, and Keegan Meyn drove in a run with a broken-bat blooper to left.

Trevor Ezell singled in a run in the second, and Troy Scocca added an RBI double in the third. A misplay by left fielder Joey Denison on the double allowed another run to score and Scocca coasted into third. He scored a batter later when Meyn grounded out to short.

Upper Valley loaded the bases against reliever Michael Fairchild in the sixth after Santiago exited, but he struck out back-to-back batters to escape the jam. Nighthawks reliever Mike Coss spun four scoreless innings to keep it somewhat close, but the offense wasn’t able to dig out of the early hole.

The game was called after heavy rain and lightning struck before the home half of the eighth inning.

The Mountaineers, who resumed play with a 4-1 lead, only needed Davis Feldman to shut out the Nighthawks in the opening part of the doubleheader, a continuation of Thursday’s rain-shortened contest. Feldman entered with a three-run lead to preserve and retired nine of the 10 batters he faced, working around a lone walk. Joe Jacques, who threw four innings on Friday, recorded the win. He allowed a lone earned run on two hits and three walks.

Backed by a four-run spurt from the offense on Friday, Vermont easily rolled to an 8-1 win during the opener. Scocca finished 3-for-3 with a pair of doubles, three runs scored and an RBI. He doubled in a run in the seventh and then came around to score two batters later. Catcher Slade Heggen, who went 3-for-4 and finished a home run shy of the cycle, brought in a pair of runs with a triple to straightaway center. Michael Osinski went 3-for-4 and Trevor Ezell drove in a pair of runs for the Mountaineers, who piled up 13 hits in seven innings.

“I thought it was great to come out and put four runs up,” Brown said. “A 4-1 game can go either way. Then it was great to come out and swing the bats even more in the second game.”

Upper Valley starter Cordes Baker took the loss, allowing four earned runs on seven hits over 4.1 innings.

NOTES: Ross Caswell, a catcher from Randolph who’s playing his college ball at Nichols, was announced as the new catcher in the eighth inning for the Mountaineers, drawing a big round of applause from the fans at Recreation Field...Santiago’s start was the best by any member of the Vermont rotation this summer, accumulating a 71 Game Score, a stat devised by statistician Bill James...Vermont sends four players to the NECBL All-Star Game on Sunday in Newport, RI. Those are starters Mikael Mogues and Mike Osinski, as well as reserves Troy Scocca and Joe Tietjen...Vermont has three divisional opponents in a row — Winnipesaukee, North Adams and Sanford — at home following the All-Star break.