Knights

Photo: Kailey Lane/Nashua Silver Knights

Following a quiet night offensively in their last game, the Silver Knights were looking to reignite the potential flame that is their talented lineup. Looking for any form of turnaround, their answer to flipping the switch wore #16 on Saturday night.

Mitch McCabe, the Massachusetts kid heading into his senior year at Pace University, left his fingerprints all over the box score in Nashua’s Friday evening matchup with the Pittsfield Suns. McCabe posted four RBIs in the ballgame, ending up being the deciding amount for the Nashua win. Mitch’s RBIs came via a two RBI double and a two-run shot, coming up huge for the Knight offense in the 10-6 victory.

After back-to-back home games, Nashua set out to open a long five game road trip. Their almost weeklong road stint is one of their longest of the season, as the Knights looked to stay on course after their nine-game winning streak ended on Friday night.

In a loss at the hands of the Vermont Lake Monsters, the Nashua offense had trouble kicking into gear. Facing off against a red-hot offense in Pittsfield, who have posted 10+ runs in their last three games, Nashua’s offense needed to bring their best.

Both offenses started to go shot for shot. Pittsfield jumped out to an early 1-0 lead as Nashua leapfrogged them with two runs in the second to make it 2-1. After the Suns took the two-run punch for the Knights, Pittsfield responded with a harder shot. A five run crooked inning in the third gave the Suns the lead back with a good amount of separation. Pittsfield kept the line moving in their five-run frame, highlighted by UNC Asheville’s Robbie Burnett clearing the wall for a two-run shot.

After the scoring frenzy, both teams settled down with two scoreless frames. Needing to claw back with not much time to do it, Nashua started to rally one hit at a time. All with two outs, two runners got aboard ahead of Eastern Nazarene’s Shane McNamara. McNamara kept the inning alive with a single to bring home one run, making the score 6-3. Mitch McCabe now came up to the plate in what would be his first big moment of the night. McCabe doubled to center field on a bases clearing two-bagger to now move the score to 6-5.

Now back into the ballgame, Nashua started to get in a groove. On the mound, the Knights bullpen looked to stop the bleeding after Pittsfield's early six run display. Worcester State’s Cole Glassburn delivered in his three innings, with no earned runs in his long relief appearance. Glassburn bridged the gap to URI’s Brandon Hsu, Plymouth State’s Noah Wachter, and Wake Forest’s Will Andrews as the three are slowly becoming Nashua’s trademark 7-8-9 arms. All three combined for no earned runs, striking out five on only two hits.

For the offense, they kept their foot on the gas. Wake Forest’s Chris Katz doubled, and Salve Regina’s Matt D’Amato singled to lead off the sixth. Pittsfield would then cough up the lead on some costly errors, bringing home both to make it 7-6 Nashua.

After adding one insurance run on a RBI single by UMass’s Will MacLean in the seventh, McCabe would turn the lights out on the Suns with a two run bomb to make the Knights lead 10-6. Pittsfield would go down quietly in the bottom of the ninth as Nashua avoided dropping back-to-back games to move to 20-18 on the season.

After starting their road trip off with a bang, the Silver Knights will look to start another win streak as they visit Brockton on Sunday. First pitch against the Rox will be at 1:30 PM.