Nashua catcher Kevin Connolly tags out Brockton's Eli Smith at the plate during Wednesday's Education Day game at Holman Stadium. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – The second straight Education Day game at Holman Stadium for the Nashua Silver Knights had ended Wednesday, but it wasn’t exactly class dismissed.

Instead of the usual brief postgame chat just away from the dugout, Knights manager Kyle Jackson took his team out to right field, away from what little crowd remained after the 10-5 loss to the Brockton Rox that wasn’t really as close as the final score indicated. It was a longer than usual chat.

The message was simple: Unacceptable.

Just call them the Running Rox, as they sped all over the bases yesterday and ran roughshod over the Knights before a school student crowd of 3,222. The Rox stole six bases, turned singles into doubles, and took advantage of five Knight walks but more importantly a whopping five Nashua errors. The Knights were also outhit 8-4 and their hitters fanned 11 times, many looking.

“That was not Nashua baseball,” Jackson said he told his players. “All around – from fielding, pitching, hitting. Those aren’t the expectations I have and they shouldn’t have them themselves.

“A wakeup call. I saw in the ninth we score runs and no one picks the guy up. I saw it. Unacceptable.”

The Rox running game got into gear in the third inning, completely unnerving Nashua lefty starter Aiden O’Connell, who didn’t make it out of the third after giving up four runs on three hits, walk, hit batsman, and sac fly. Eli Smith had a couple of RBI hits on the day for the Rox, and got them on the board with a bases loaded two run single. A sac fly by Jack Fitzgerald and Braxton Templin RBI single finished the outburst. Fitzgerald drove in two more with an RBI single in the seventh to make it 6-1, and the killer was a four-run eighth in which three Brockton runners were picked off but Knights first baseman Justin Blumenthal from Portsmouth (UMass) twice threw wildly to second and the third time didn’t throw at all. The Rox scored four times in the eighth on just three hits with four Knights errors. It wasn’t pretty.

And, except for a two run ninth, Nashua hitters either had the bats on their shoulders or just couldn’t catch up to Rox pitching with 11 strikeouts.

“The at-bats were bad, the pitching was bad, everything was bad,” Jackson said. “They need to hold themselves to higher expectations. I think the world of them, and I think they are capable of amazing things. They just have to believe in themselves.”

Thus, Jackson was trying to nip everything in the bud, especially since the team is off to a 2-7 start.

“Today is don’t let it fester.”

They’ll see the Rox again a week from Saturday in Brockton, and unless they can keep them off the bases with good pitching like they did on Tuesday (a 3-0 win), this team, 5-4 now, could be a problem. They don’t appear to be the doormats of a season ago.

“We had three pickoffs, and we threw it away,” Jackson said. “We know, we talked to the guys ahead that they’re going to run. You have to control the running game, but when you’re trying to find the strike zone as a pitcher, there’s got to be confidence with it.”

Nashua Silver Knights manager Kyle Jackson, left, talks to his team after Wednesday ‘s 10-5 loss to Brockton at Holman Stadium. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

Nashua Silver Knights manager Kyle Jackson, left, talks to his team after Wednesday ‘s 10-5 loss to Brockton at Holman Stadium. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

A bright spot for Nashua was the relief work of Nolan Mederos, who 3.1 innings of scoreless relief, walking one and striking out two. Adin Zorn and Kevin Connolly had RBI hits. Nashua, as Jackson eluded, scored three in the ninth off Rox reliever Cam Foster but a double play ended the game.

Nashua has one more Education Day game this morning, but this one is on the road at the Worcester Bravehearts. Jason Libby (0-0, 9.81) is set to take the mound for Nashua, who return home Friday vs. New Britain.