NASHUA – Aaron Rosen is normally a shortstop at Bowdoin College. But with the Nashua Silver Knights, he was told to be prepared to play just about anywhere.

Thus Wednesday afternoon he was called upon midway through the game when Nashua outfielder Jimmy Ricoy was hurting from a rolled ankle. Rosen made the most of his chance, delivering the game-winning RBI single in the eighth inning as the Knights prevailed 4-3 over Wachusett before a home-opening Holman Stadium Education Day crowd of 1,333.

“It was pretty unfortunate seeing Jimmy go down,” Rosen said. “But I was ready to go, and that last inning I was fortunate to come up with a couple of guys on base. I was just looking to be aggressive, saw a good pitch first pitch, took a hack and got jammed a bit but it worked out.”

Rosen came up after Johnny Adams reached on an infield hit off Dirt Dawgs reliever Will Stillman and was sacrificed to second. Sean Lyons was hit by a pitch, Matt Sanchez fanned but up came Rosen, who had struck out his first time after Ricoy was pulled for a pinch-runner in the fifth.

“He did a nice job in right field and he came up big,” Silver Knights manager J.P. Pyne said after the team improved to 2-1 on the young Futures Collegiate Baseball League season. “That was a situation when we needed him to do it.”

Rosen’s hit made a winner out of Londonderry’s Geoff Fisher, the third of four Knights pitchers, tossing 11?3 of one-hit, one-strikeout relief. Cody Rocha pitched the ninth and fanned Derek Lowe with the tying run at second to record his first save of the year.

Lyons, who reached base four times, and some shoddy defense were catalysts in the Knights grabbing a 3-0 lead through the first four. He slid across the plate in the first on the first of three errors by Wachusett third baseman Devin Perry. Dan Celluci’s RBI single made it a 2-0 game in the second and Lyons scored an unearned run in the fourth.

But Wachusett knotted things with three in the fifth, the key blow a two-run single down the line past first by Lowe off Tom Baroni, who came in in relief of starter Matt Tulley. Tulley had thrown four shutout innings but tired in the fifth.

“I got a little greedy with Tully, trying to get him the win, his count was getting up there,” Pyne said, his team with nine hits, all singles. “I thought he threw great the first four.

“It’s always great to win the first one at home. It was a good crowd, they were into it. It was a fun one.”

Notes

TRADING PLACES: Nashua visits Wachusett on Thursday night, with Merrimack lefty Tom Hudon set to take the mound. The rainout Tuesday pushes back the rotation, but that means Nashua native Jake Mellin will be slated to take the hill for Saturday’s big ring ceremony night.

LOWELL PLANS: Pyne said he’ll use the bullpen to pitch Friday’s 6 p.m. exhibition game against the Lowell Spinners at LeLacheur Park in Lowell, weather permitting. Last year the teams played six innings. Admission is free and the gates open at 5 p.m.

HURTING: Ricoy rolled his ankle rounding the bag in the first inning. “I don’t think it’s a long-term concern but we’ll be smart with him,” Pyne said.

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