Knights

(Nashua, NH): The Knights gave themselves a very realistic chance at a top-2 playoff berth with an 18-1 victory on Friday at Holman Stadium, tying their season-high for runs. Nashua is only one game behind Worcester for the top spot in the FCBL standings, and is now 4 games ahead of third-place Westfield with 11 games left in the regular-season. 

Nashua would break the game open in the 2nd with five runs, right when it seemed this contest would be a back and forth affair. Max Viera (Northeastern) would double with one out, then Brett Anderson (Hartford) would single him in. Brady Day (Kansas State) followed with a single and Troy Schreffller Jr. was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Lucas Stalman would follow them with a single, scoring Brady Day (Kansas State) and Anderson. Jared Dupere (Northeastern) would take his turn and slap a triple down the right field line, scoring Schreffler and Stalman. Brockton would score their lone run in the 3rd inning. Joel Lara (Franklin Pierce) singled to lead off the inning, and would score on a Jacob Studley (Wheaton) SAC fly after advancing to third on a Jake Gelof (Virginia) double.

In the 4th, Nashua added another six runs. Day would start things off with a 1-out single, followed by Schreffler. Stalman singled, scoring Brady Day. Next up was Dupere, who singled up the middle, scoring Schreffler and moving Stalman to 3rd before a throwing error by the center fielder allowed him to score also. Dupere would move to third after a rundown. Dom Keegan (Vandy Boys) would hit a SAC fly to score Dupere. John Mead (Franklin Pierce) would start a new train of hits with a single, before Viera came up and hit his 3rd home run of the season. 

The Knights would add another five in the 8th to finish their scoring. Anderson would lead off the inning with a walk and score on a single from Stalman. Day and Schreffler would reach base before Keegan laced a 2-RBI double to the right-center gap. Nick Perkins (Endicott) would trade places with Keegan as he doubled to center field and scored Stalman and Keegan. 

Nashua now leads the league in many offensive categories including team batting average (.272), runs (188), hits (261), RBI (163), and OBP (.380), as well as team fielding percentage (.970), and are second in team ERA at 4.54 as they continue to play solid group baseball down the final stretch of the season. Individually, Jared Dupere continues to lead the FCBL batting average race at .426 after going 3-4 with 3RBI on Friday. Keegan leads the FCBL in RBI with 29. 

Starting pitcher Jack Dicenso (Nichols) picked up his first win of the season (1-2); Going a strong 5 innings, giving up 1ER on 5H, 1BB and 5K. The Nashua bullpen did not allow a hit in the final four innings, also walking one batter and combining for 5K. Joe Ryan (Boston College) took the loss for Brockton in his first start of the season. He gave up 5ER on 6H and 5K. 

The Knights record is 17-11, as they continue to close in on the top spot in the standings. They are now 4 games ahead of Westfield for the second playoff spot. Nashua will host New Britain on Saturday at 6PM and continue their homestand against Brockton on Sunday at 3PM. Subscribe to the FCBL Network and catch all Knights game action, plus every game throughout the league, by visiting FCBLNetwork.com.