Telegraph photo by TOM KING Nashua catcher Dom Keegan, top,looks dejected while Worcester's Matt Shaw, right, celebrates his solo home run duirng Thursday night's 3-0 Bravehearts win at Holman Stadium.

NASHUA – There’s a reason the Worcester Bravehearts are in first place in the Futures Collegiate Baseball League.

The Nashua Silver Knights and their fans at Holman Stadium discovered what that is on Thursday night:

Pitching.

The Bravehearts basically shut down the Knights attack for eight innings en route to a 3-1 win that extends their first place lead over Nashua to a game-and-a-half.

The Knights did catch a break when North Shore beat Brockton 3-0 last night to keep Nashua’s lead to three over the Rox for the second and final playoff spot. Nashua is at Brockton for a huge game today at 5 p.m.

“I told the guys at the end,” Nashua manager Kyle Jackson said. “You can blame the (plate) umpire, you can blame yourselves, you can blame a whole bunch of stuff. But at the end of the day, it’s who can make the most adjustments. … And they got the key hit and we didn’t.”

The Knights were stymied by the tandem of Bravehearts starter Cole Chudoba and reliever Carson Hauben., the pair combining for 12 strikeouts.

Chudoba, an Assumption College senior, was locked in a pitching duel with Nashua’s Pat Harrington for five innings before a Luke Beckstein throwing error opened the door for two Worcester runs in the sixth. Worcester got a Tyler Patane two-run single off Harrington (0-2) who otherwise did a fine job allowing just one earnd run over 5.2 innings, on five hits, walking one and strikout out 7.

And all Hauben did was strike out the side with the bases loaded and nobody out in the bottom of the seventh. The Knights had finally chased Chudoba (no runs, three hits, two walks, six strikeouts) with a walk to Dom Keegan and a John Mead base hit. Beckstein greeted Hauben with a single to load the bases,but the Bravehearts reliever fanned Max Viera, Brett Anderson and Nick Perkins to end the threat.

“We haven’t done that all year,” Jackson said. “And the past two days we’ve been doing that. We’re trying to hit a home run instead of just putting the ball in play and giving ourselves a chance.

“I think they’re pressing too much. It’s getting toward the end of the year, guys are tired, and we’re in that 13-game stretch (without a day off, until this Monday) we’re in.”

Worcester’s Matt Shaw made it 3-0 with a solo shot in the seventh. Nashua was only outhit 7-6 but even when the Knights finally scored things didn’t go completely right. Pinch-hitter Kyle Bouchard singled in Viera with one out in the bottom of the ninth off Worcester closer Brad Marchetti but was thrown out trying to stretch it into a double.

It doesn’t get much easier for Nashua. They have to face Brockton’s ace, Nick Sinacola and his 1.05 earned run average at Campanelli Stadium.

“We have a tough matchup (today) with Sinacola,” Jackson said. “We have to come out and play and get the bats going.”

Nashua has two with the Rox (both on the road), two with North Shore (home and away), and one with Westfield left. If they see the Bravehearts again, it will be in the finals.

“I told these guys to just wipe this one away (from memory),” Jackson said. “Forget it, move on, like they’ve done all year. Keep competing, and see where the chips fall.”

XXXXXXX

Bishop Guertin alum Steve McLendon (0-0, 2.53) will get the nod on the mound for Nashua tonight, not Joe Quintal. Quintal, who has struggled as a starter but pitched a scoreless frame in relief the other night, has asked to stay in the bullpen.

“He’s the most fresh,”Jackson said of McLendon, “and he’s started before. He’s thrown well so far out of the pen. I’m taking the same approach I did (on Monday) with (Nick) Guarino. Go out there, throw strikes, give me how many innings you can do and compete. And they always compete, and we’ll go from there.”

XXXXXX

Keegan after the game confirmed Saturday will be his last game as he has to head to Vanderbilt. There was some doubt he could even play that day with the game time changed to 4:35 p.m. from 1 p.m. (NESN telecast), but he told Jackson he’ll be good to go.

Newsletter