Nighthawks Head to North Adams Looking to Rebound Against SteepleCats
The Nighthawks are 1-3 against the SteepleCats this season.
By Thaddeus Sawyer
The North Adams SteepleCats’ 2026 campaign has been a story of two different teams.
There’s the squad that has won a league-worst seven games against 23 losses with a lineup that has slashed .196/.306/.259 on the season and doesn’t feature a single hitter with an OPS of .800 or better.
There’s also the unit that has gone 3-1 against the Upper Valley Nighthawks (15-14-1) in 2026 and outscored the Nighthawks by five runs across those four games. 22 of the SteepleCats’ even 100 runs on the season have come against the Nighthawks.
The Nighthawks will get a chance to rebound from three straight losses against the SteepleCats on Monday when they travel to Joe Wolfe Field in North Adams, Massachusetts, for the final time this season.
Upper Valley earned a well-deserved off day on Sunday after playing six games in six days, winning four straight in the middle of that stretch to finish last week 4-2. Three of those four victories came on the road and all four came against North Division competition, with the Nighthawks opening the win streak with a 6-2 victory over the North Division-leading Sanford Mainers (19-11) on Tuesday.
While the quartet of wins helped the Nighthawks make some headway in the standings, moving into third place in the North and back over .500, Saturday’s 5-2 loss to the North Shore Navigators (17-14) kept the Nighthawks out of second place.
Though the SteepleCats would need a miracle to even threaten the Nighthawks’ spot in the standings, winning games against statistically weaker competition will be key over the next three weeks for an Upper Valley team looking to distance themselves from a pesky knack for hovering around .500.
The SteepleCats strung together a small winning streak of their own coming into last week, with their 11-6 victory over the Nighthawks on July 3 sparking a three-game run. Since then, however, North Adams has come back down to Earth and been on the wrong end of five straight outcomes.
North Adams’ most recent loss came in a 10-0 shutout on the road on Sunday against the Vermont Mountaineers (12-19), who the Nighthawks took down twice last week and demolished 16-1 on Friday.
Middle Georgia State starter David Johnson (0-0, 1.88 ERA) will look to right the ship on the mound for the SteepleCats. The right-hander has made seven appearances this summer, starting twice.
The 22-year-old has pitched well both out of the bullpen and rotation, tossing 8 1/3 innings and allowing two runs as a starter. Johnson has surrendered just one run as a reliever, nearly a month ago against the Newport Gulls on June 16.
The second-year SteepleCat tossed 4 1/3 innings of two-run ball in his last outing against the Navigators on Wednesday.
Trey Sejnoha (0-2, 4.00 ERA) is set to make his sixth start of the summer for the Nighthawks and will be looking to rebound from back-to-back subpar performances. Command issues have plagued the Dartmouth College reliever in his two most recent outings, with the right-hander walking seven batters across his last 4 1/3 innings over two starts.
Still, Sejnoha enters Monday striking out over a batter per inning and made it at least four innings in each of his first three starts for the Nighthawks.
The 22-year-old will face off against a lineup sporting only two hitters with an OPS above .700. Center fielder Chris Diaz leads the way with a .738 OPS, while infielder Alex Barrist is right behind him with a .736 mark.
Shortstop Nelphie Lopez has also been heating up at the plate as of late, as the 2025 NECBL All-Star has five multi-hit performances in his last seven games, dating back to his first multi-hit performance of the summer against the Nighthawks on July 3.
The Nighthawks lineup has been led by third baseman James Love and catcher Nick Quagliato over the past week.
Love went 13-for-26 at the plate last week (.500 batting average) across six games, driving in nine runs and raising his season average back to .400 over 90 at-bats.
Quagliato has driven in a run in five straight contests, notching 13 RBIs in that span.
The Upper Valley offense scored 54 runs in 54 innings last week.
First pitch on Monday is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Fans can stream the contest live on NECBL+.