The Nashua Silver Knights hosted the Vermont Lake Monsters at Holman Stadium tonight in a pivotal matchup with major implications for the Futures League standings. Trailing Vermont by just a few games, the Knights were looking to gain ground.
The game saw its share of momentum swings, and while Nashua put together a solid effort on both sides of the ball, they ultimately came up just short, falling 5–4 in a tightly contested battle.
Pregame manager Nick Guarino said that “we are looking for the pitching to keep doing what they have been doing in games and hopefully the bats can pick it up a bit”.
The momentum would all start at the top of this ballgame as the Knights trotted out Breenan Rumpf who was making his first start of the year. Rumpf, who has been mainly a long relief arm for the Knights, would struggle to start. The Lake Monsters would score on a double from Sam Cavossa and he would score on a single by Nolan Colby to give them the lead. Then the next batter Sean McMillan who has been on a tear this summer would launch a ball over the wall for a two-run homer to give the away side a huge lead to start this one.
Rumpf, however, would not let his rough first inning get in his way as he went back out in the 2nd and worked. He would even get a little bit of help from the Knights’ offense which was quiet throughout as in the 4th as Joe Zorc would single in Patrick Shrake to get them on the board. Rumpf would end up going six innings on the day and make out a quality start for the Knights. His final line was 6IP on 4 H, 3 ER with 4 SO.
The Knights needed however to bring a punch to get back in this game and they would do that in the 6th inning following their starter’s exit. This time it would be Anthony Grabau who crossed the plate as the Knights caused havoc on the basepaths which led to an error and a run.
The Lake Monsters however would not be content with their one-run lead as they attacked the Knights’ bullpen in the 7th inning. Tommy Popoff and Cavossa would both drive in runs as they pushed their lead to three.
Just when the game seemed out of reach however the Knights responded and matched the visitors. In the bottom half of the frame, Dylan Littlefield would double to right field to cut the deficit to two. Then he would be driven in by Jack Balcer cutting the deficit to just one.
The Knights and their bullpen would keep the Vermont lead at one however the offense could simply not produce in the final couple of frames as the Knights fell in a narrow Vermont victory.
