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Silver Knights rally in ninth to hand Navigators first loss

By Tom King - Staff Writer | Jul 12, 2020

Telegraph photo by TOM KING Nashua Silver Knights' Dom Keegan is tagged out at home by North Shore catcher Ryan Turenne during Nashua's 5-4 walkoff win Saturday night at Holman Stadium.

NASHUA – The celebration Saturday night extended all the way to the Holman Stadium outfield.

The Nashua Silver Knights have a signature win for their season after rallying in the bottom of the ninth for a 5-4 walk-off win over the North Shore Navigators.

Why was it so special that it had the players running around like crazy? Because it meant the Navs were unbeaten no longer falling to 6-1 on the year, two of those wins over Nashua. The crowd of 501 was definitely into it.

“The Navs are 6-0, we’ve been hearing they’re the greatest team in the Futures League,” said Nashua’s Nick Shumski, whose single drove in Luke Beckstein with the game winner. “We really wanted to give them their first loss after keeping it so close all game. It felt so good to come back in the last inning and win that.”

Especially after the Navs had whipped the Knights 6-2 at Lynn’s Fraser Field the night before, a game in which usually mild mannered manager Kyle Jackson got tossed.

But Jackson’s words to his team have been consistent all season: Live to fight another day.

“I think it shows a lot,” Jackson said of the win. “It doesn’t matter whether we lose 6-0 or 6-2, my motto is ‘We get to play again tomorrow.'”

The Silver Knights improved their record to 4-4, but it didn’t look like they would have that chance when Ryan Cervone’s slicing ground rule double off reliever Brandon Dufault in the top of the ninth, bouncing over the left field brick wall, plated the go-ahead run. The Navs were celebrating almost as much as Nashua did at game’s end. Oops.

Early on, Nashua had a 3-1 lead on Ben Rounds’ two-run homer and a Luke Beckstein RBI single in the first, but Cody Morisette’s two-run single tied the game in the fifth.

Nashua’s rally came against North Shore closer Beau Dana, who after two walks and a throwing error, wild pitched home Troy Schreffler, Jr. with the tying run. After fanning the newly signed former Nav Thomas Crowley, Dana couldn’t slip an 0-1 pitch past Shumski. The Salem product (Merrimack College) lined it into left to end it, and the Knights players ran all the way out to the outfield in jubilation. Steve Miller got the win in relief.

“I just had to come through for the team,” Shumski said. “I knew I had to make some contact and find some green out there. Keeping laser focus and put the bat on the ball and that’s how she wrote it.”

A script the Knights would love to re-enact all summer.

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