And an eventful homestand. Wednesday’s Camp Day itself began with the downer of former Alvirne and Rivier standout pitcher Isaac Burkett having another disastrous start (six runs on seven hits in 1-1-3 innings) and being released. Tough call, but Burkett just didn’t have it his last few starts and the club really had no choice.

“He was our number two starter going into the season and I really thought he’s be one of the better pitchers in the league,” Defenders manager Brian Daubach said. “I think he lost a lot of confidence. And today he really wasn’t himself at all. He was aiming the ball, and when he did throw it over the plate he had no velocity on it. And I think he pretty much agreed. It wasn’t a big surprised.

“It’s always hard. Hopefully he can get his mindset back, maybe get a chance to go somewhere else or back here next here or something. It’s always hard when you release a good kid like that.”

The team had to make a move after the first game because they signed righty Francisco Serventes in between games to start the nightcap and had no roster room. Serventes didn’t disappoint, checking the Jackals on two runs on four hits over five innings. He’s earned himself another start — but Daubach’s not sure when that will be. If he’s rested by Sunday, fine, if not, the Defenders will go with bullpen start by committee, Daubach said.

“He did a good job,” he said. “And the thing that stood out is he did a good job holding runners, something we’ve been struggling with, too. Held runners, threw strikes, showed a good slider, he’s definitely somebody we can win with.”

On the plus side, how about the three straight scoreless appearances by Defenders reliever Cooper Brannan? He looked like a bust until late last week, and he now looks more like the pitcher the San Diego Padres saw when they signed him a couple of years ago. He saw in a couple of ways, one through a photograph, that he was opening his front side.

“Once I started closing it out and feeling a good landing with my front foot, everything started coming out real good and I had better command,” Brannan said. “I just made that big adjustment.”

“When he pitches to contact, he’s been like he has been lately,” Defenders pitching coach J.P. Pyne said. “When he tries to do too much, when he’s not finishing pitches, he becomes very hittable because everything is up in the zone. So he’s done an awful lot of work on the side, and with that he’s earning more and more responsibilites, because we have to make decisions with this bullpen. The guys that go out there and throw strikes, the guys that get ground balls and compete, they’re going to see their share of the repsonsibility go up.”

So pencil in Brannan and Lucas Ledbetter, who pitched a 1-2-3 sixth in the nightcap, as being Daubach’s two primary middle inning bridge to the Adam Piechowski/Juan Padilla closing tandem.

And then, of course, there’s the dramatic back-to-back homers by Angel Molina and Chris Kelly to salvage a split Wednesday and give the Defenders at least a 2-6 homestand. Hey, it’s better than 1-7.

“We’ve battled most of the time all year in close games,” Defenders first baseman Jerod Edmondson said. “We never think we’re really out of it. We feel we have guys who can drive it out of the park as you can see…Just to ge one under our belt. Now we’re going out on the road (Brockton and Worcester). Hopefully we can keep building, four, five, six in a row.”

FYI, The Home Base will take another few days vaca break and be back soon.

– TOM KING