Knights

Photo: Kailey Lane/Nashua Silver Knights

In Nashua’s latest winning streak, the hot bats of the Silver Knights have headlined many of their consecutive wins. But on Sunday afternoon, the pitching staff claimed this victory as theirs.

Headlined by Northeastern’s Aiven Cabral getting the start, five Silver Knight pitchers took the bump in their Sunday afternoon matchup with the Norwich Sea Unicorns. In total, all five pitchers added up for no earned runs on only five hits. With dominance from their arms, Nashua took their sixth in a row 3-1 and moved to 16-17 on the season.

Cabral, looking to bounce back from a loss in his last outing, took the mound to face Norwich for the first time this season. Northeastern’s freshman righty was effective, pumping out quick innings along with getting out of jams. With Norwich getting a runner in scoring position in three of Cabral’s five innings, Aiven allowed no earned runs with one runner coming across on an error.

After three quick and quiet innings from the Nashua offense, the fourth inning was where they took off running. A walk and an error setup yesterday's hero Shane McNamara for a chance to deliver. McNamara scorched a bounding ball past the outstretched glove of the first baseman, scoring the runner from second and tying the ball game at one.

UMass’s Will MacLean stepped up to the plate following McNamara with runners on the corners. In a high IQ play by Nashua, McNamara stole second with Norwich throwing down. This set up Vanderbilt’s Ray Velazquez, standing on third, to use his speed to beat the throw back to home. Heads up baserunning awarded Nashua a 2-1 lead. MacLean, looking for his second RBI in his last two games, found a hole in the outfield to bring home the runner from second with the Nashua lead now 3-1.

Now up two, the pitching nailed things down from there on out. Saint Anselm’s Avery Mosseau, Clark’s Zach Gitschier, Plymouth State’s Noah Wachter, and SNHU’s George Welch were the “Fantastic Four” coming out of the bullpen. All pitching one inning each, only one hit was given up with five strikeouts amongst the four. Welch got the honors of closing it out in the ninth, punching out two of his three batters faced and ending the game 1-2-3.

Nashua’s pitching staff showed out against Norwich, locking down their sixth straight. Looking for lucky number seven, the Knights will take on the Worcester Bravehearts at 11:00 AM for some Independence Day baseball.