Senerchia Post 74 got its bats going in the sixth inning, but couldn’t string together enough hits to dig itself out of a three-run hole, en route to falling to the Saratoga Stampede, 3-1, on Friday morning in the Firecracker Tournament.

The Hawks couldn’t solve Saratoga starter Nate Shader for the first five innings of the game, allowing the road team to tack on a run in the third and two in the top of the sixth to put Senerchia down 3-0 with just six outs to spare.

But Senerchia would put some pressure on the Stampede’s 6-foot-3 right-hander in the sixth.

With one down, Matt Sweeney ripped a ground ball single to left field to get things started.

Elijah Brown followed with the biggest hit of the day for the Hawks, drilling a pitch well over the center fielder’s head and to the wall for a triple that plated Sweeney, trimming the deficit to two.

Nico Salvaggio then walked to put the tying run on first, however, it turned out that luck wasn’t on Senerchia’s side.

Joe Boland got a good pitch to hit and squared it up, but crushed it right at the second baseman, who flipped to the shortstop for an easy double play to escape the threat.

“We started to square him up as the game went along,” Senerchia head coach Chris Sheehan said of Shader. “We had our opportunities, we just didn’t get that big hit. Joe Boland with first and third smoked that ball, but the kid made a great play and doubled him up.”

While the offense struggled in the early innings, Senerchia starter Rob Vaillancourt didn’t.

He cruised through the first two innings with a pair of strikeouts, before a two-out double in the third from Brian Hart brought Terell Tillman home for the game’s first run.

But, after that, Vaillancourt retired the next hitter to end the third, and continued to stifle the Stampede in the fourth and fifth innings.

While Vaillancourt was keeping Senerchia in the game, the offense failed to capitalize on some early opportunities.

In the bottom of the second, the Hawks had runners on first and second, before Brian Cipolla grounded out sharply to first to end the frame.

Billy Roberge then singled and stole second with two down in the third to put another runner in scoring position. It looked like he would score easily too, when Sweeney roped a pitch that was labeled for the gap in left center field. Unfortunately, the ball hung up just long enough to be tracked down by the center fielder and preserve Saratoga’s 1-0 lead.

In the sixth, the Stampede added some insurance.

Kyle Powell led off the inning with a single and quickly scored when Matt Triola raked a double to the wall in left field to make it 2-0.

A passed ball advanced Triola to third and a walk to Kaden Learch put runners on the corners with no one out.

A couple of pitches later, Learch got caught stealing by Boland in an attempt to draw a throw and score the run.

Vaillancourt kept Triola 90 feet away when he got Ben Mason to hit a lazy chopper to Sweeney at third for the second out.

It looked as if Vaillancourt would strand Triola at third, but the right-hander uncorked a wild pitch that trickled to the backstop, allowing Triola to sprint home to push the lead out to three.

“That third run really killed us,” Sheehan said. “We get that one run after that, and it would’ve been a lot easier to tie the game instead of chasing two there, but I was really impressed with Vaillancourt. I thought he did a great job on the mound. That was a good team and he stayed tough. Overall, it was a really good effort.”

The loss came after the Hawks rallied for a come-from-behind win, 4-3, in the first game of the tournament. In its third game, also on Friday, Senerchia couldn’t find any momentum in an eventual 10-3 loss to Team Boston 17U. It would go on to drop its fourth game as well, 3-0, against the Spring City Red Sox from Pennsylvania to conclude the Firecracker Tournament with a 1-3 record.

The Hawks will return to league action tonight when they travel to Joe Williams Field to take on Providence Post 56 at 5:30 p.m.