Tom King

Here’s some tids and bits as we get deeper and deeper into the month of May, hoping that Mother Nature will finally get the hint that it’s spring:

– Who says the spring season isn’t all that special? In the last two weeks, we’ve seen three of the more exciting games of the entire school (high school and college) sports season.

First was the incredible 10-inning baseball game between Nashua South and Pinkerton two weeks ago on a Saturday. It featured Pinkerton Liam Doyle’s 17 strikeout effort, South’s Albert De La Rosa’s rope homer, gutsy pitching by the fist-pumping Nolan Mederos and tons of strategy and tense spots.

Then move ahead a week later to last Saturday when a Linda Robinson Pavilion standing room only crowd watched the best lacrosse game of the year when Rivier University beat Emmanuel College in double overtime at Joanne Merrill field 10-9 in the GNAC men’s lacrosse quarterfinals.

Fans were even perched from the stands near the Raider Diamond press box that’s elevated over the back end. The roar of the crowd during fast breaks, the plays that included Emmanuel tying the game with six seconds left in regulation plus the anticipation once Riv’s Michael Ference got the ball with a wide open look for the game-winner with just over three minutes left in the second OT … priceless entertainment.

And third, Friday night’s great Nashua High School North-South baseball game at Holman won by the Panthers 1-0 that had all kinds of twists and turns.

Let’s see what the rest of the spring brings.

– Can you believe the Nashua Silver Knights season starts in just three weeks? We’ll take a good look in the next couple of weeks at how the local Futures Collegiate Baseball League has done in the off-season as a franchise, business end.

But one thing, they’ll get some great exposure as they are scheduled to be on NESN not once, but twice. They’ll kick off the NESN coverage with a game at Holman on Saturday, July 2, with the Knights hosting the Pittsfield Suns at 1 p.m. That’s a big holiday weekend for the Silver Knights as they’ll

Then they’ll be on NESN as a road team at Brockton on Saturday, July 23 at noon.

The other NESN games are Brockton at Worcester on July 9 and Worcester at Westfield (Mass.) on July 16. Shame that the new apparent signature franchise, Vermont, won’t be on the series.

— Milford High School may be losing its fabulous athletic director, but at some point you have to hope it will have a turf field,and there is a move afoot to do just that. Back when the track was built and the stadium was first renovated, the school board, outgoing Milford AD Maurais recalled, had two proposals, one for field turf and one without. It chose the one without, saving $800,000.

So now community leaders are getting the conversation going again and a meeting was scheduled for this past week as they’re trying to organize a fundraising effort.

“Get those things in a row, get financials in a row,” Maurais said, adding that there is also an official feasibility study, “so there’s different things being talked about right now. … It’s matter of trying to see where he interest is.”

You can bet that if Maurais was staying on, he’d lead the charge.

“I haven’t changed my mind from 15 years ago,” he said.

“The property is what it is. We’re the type of setting that really needs to have this. Look what’s happened in the last 15 years? Some of our neighbors have this, Souhegan, Hollis Brookline. So now why not us.”

So it would be “a combined effort, that would be a better approach, so the townspeople can say everyone’s on the same page here.”

The cost? No hard number, he says, but he guesstimates that “If it was 800,000 back then, maybe in the $1.2 to $1.5 (million) ballpark.”

“We’re almost there,” Maurais said. “We have a fantastic track that is properly maintained, we have LED lighting. Now it’s that surface.”

– Former Merrimack High School and Nashua Silver Knight standout Mickey Gasper continues to hit, but he just hasn’t played in a lot of games so far this season, just eight with the Yankees Double A team, the Somerset Patriots. Gasper at last look was hitting .393 playing in eight games, with two doubles and three RBIs.

True to his form, Gasper’s eye at the plate hasn’t changed, as he’s walked five times.

— Here’s the deal on the New England Patriots recent top draft picks. It wasn’t a question of who they took, but where they took them. First round pick Cole Strange was thought to be a third round pick – maybe, just maybe – a high second rounder. Second round pick Tyquan Thornton, the receiver out of Baylor, was thought to be a fourth rounder.

Now, for the flip side: Both appear to be good players. Strange could be a long-term starter at guard, and the speedy Thornton should make a difference in that category at receiver at some point.

The bottom, bottom line? We won’t know likely until two or three years from now. Unless you’re picking in the top, say, 15 in the first round, there’s not really going to be much immediate impact.

The real question is, was there a better player at No. 21 for the Patriots to pick before they traded back to 29? You’d have to think so, right?

– It’s Kentucky Derby Weekend. We’ll stick with our pick Messier, although now the Canadian bred horse is at 8-1. Messier was named after New York Ranger and Edmonton Oiler great Mark Messier as the wife of the managing partner of the syndicate that owns the horse has not one but two family members who played and won Stanley Cups with Mark Messier in Edmonton.

Winners breed winners, right?

Tom King can be reached at tking@nashuatelegraph.com, or on twitter @Telegraph _TomK.

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