NASHUA – Get ready to learn some new names for the 2013 Nashua Silver Knights season.

The third year brings plenty of changes, including a new manager, J.P. Pyne, and only nine returnees from the repeat Futures Collegiate League champions.

Among those nine, only two are position players – outfield brothers Connor and Sean Lyons, and Connor’s not due back until next month thanks to injury.

“I think it’s a good mix of returnees and new guys,” said Pyne, the pitching coach a year ago. “I think we’re deep. It’s really an athletic group that can run and play defense.”

It probably won’t be the power group that fans have been used to. Last year’s team led the FCBL in homers with 37. This year the Knights likely won’t come close to that, as the most any player hit in college this spring is two.

But they’ll pitch, run, and play defense.

PITCHERS

What to do with 15-16 arms? Pyne is looking at a six-man rotation to start, the same as the team did a year ago.

Lefty Chris Good (14-3 at Belhaven U.) and Alek Morency (seven wins at Merrimack College) are solid as a one-two punch but then the rest are all new to the mix: locals Jake Mellin (Nashua North, University of Hartford), lefty Tom Hudon (Merrimack High School, St. Anselm) Tim Cashman (teammate of Morency’s at Merrimack College) and Virginia Tech freshman Matt Tulley.

“We’ll go a turn or two (in rotation) and then see,” Pyne said.

But he has depth in the pen, with “guys who can start on short notice.” That begins with Hudson’s Travis Terrill (Merrimack), Nashua’s Connor Root (Bentley), Bedford’s Cole Warren (University of Rhode Island), and lefty Tom Baroni (Bates).

Londonderry’s Geoff Fisher is back after a year off from injury, but will relieve as he did at UMass-Lowell (10 appearances, 1-0, 3.52) to start. Alex Alstott of Southern New Hampshire University can play the field or pitch in a pinch.

Cody Rocha (Assumption), who saved nine games last summer, returns as the lefty closer. Also Londonderry’s Dan Kinnon (Southern Maine, 1-0, 4.81) was brought in as a situational lefty.

CATCHERS

There will be new receivers this year, Boston College’s Steve Sauter and UMass-Lowell’s Jake O’Keefe (.229, 19 RBIs). Pyne and Neverett like the switch-hitting Sauter’s bat (.226, one homer, nine RBIs) and he may DH on days he doesn’t catch.

INFIELDERS

Tewksbury’s Manny Cabral (Texas Southern, .241, 12 RBIs) could provide some pop at first base and SNHU’s Bryan Toland may do the same at third. In between, it’s a rotation, Pyne feels, between players like Bowdoin’s Aaron Rosen (.346), Bryant’s Dan Cellucci, and Boston College’s Gabe Hernandez. What will be interesting is how high school grads Johnny Adams (Walpole, Mass, BC-bound) and Ryan Sullivan (Hopkinton, Mass., headed for UConn) fit in once they arrive after school ends.

“We’ve got a bunch of guys who are versatile,” Pyne said.

OUTFIELDERS

It’s not a power-hitting bunch, but a fast bunch. It’ll get even faster when Bedford’s Connor Lyons (Northeastern) returns in a month from a broken collarbone. In the meantime, there’s his brother, Sean, Alstott, and UMass-Lowell’s Matt Sanchez (.291, 27 RBIs) and Jim Ricoy.

Ricoy may be the Knights best hitter; he hit .330 with two homers and 32 RBIs for the River Hawks.

Newsletter