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Silver Knights championship had plenty of drama and key decisions

By Tom King - Staff Writer | Aug 24, 2020

Telegraph photo by TOM KING Nashua Silver Knights infielder Nate Cormier (44) and his teammates cheer during the FCBL Championship Trophy presentation on Saturday night after Nashua beat Worcester, 5-3 in the third and deciding game at Holman Stadium.

NASHUA – Brandon Dufault got his wish, but not without some drama.

There was plenty of it in the ninth inning that the Nashua Silver Knights had to go through before winning their unprecedented fifth Futures Collegiate League championship on Saturday night.

A week ago, Silver Knights reliever Dufault, after a tough injury-riddled regular season, said he was hoping to play a big role for Nashua in the FCBL Finals.

He did just that. But not without some anxious moments. With Nashua nursing a 5-2 lead, Dufault walked Worcester’s No. 9 hitter, Chad Slade, to start the ninth. He struck out Matt Shaw, but then had two strikes on both Nick Martin (walk) and league MVP Ben Rice of Dartmouth (RBI double). Things were tense.

He actually got his feet wet in the eighth, throwing two pitches over catcher Jack Arend’s head. But he settled down to get the one out he needed to end that frame.

And then with runners on first and third, Holman Stadium lore will tell you Dufault struck out Worcester’s Tyler Patane in a tough at-bat to end it.

“I was feeling really good, I came out a little excited,” Dufault said. “Maybe in that second inning, I was trying to get a little bit too much outside of myself and trying to throw a little bit too hard.

“But I settled in there, started throwing strikes. A couple of those 3-2 counts I thought I got squeezed, I thought I should have had them a couple of times. But in the end, we came back, I found the location and got it by them.”

It doesn’t get any better after what the reliever had been through.

“It can’t,” Dufault said. “I’m glad I was the one on the mound, and was able to get the final strikeout and end the season on a high note.”

Jackson said “It was his game to lose”.

But, the manager had former Bishop Guertin standout Stephen McLendon warming in the bullpen because Dufault had gotten injured on the mound earlier in the season.

“I always like to prepare myself for the worst and hope for the best,” Jackson said. “My whole decision was to have him come in and kind of get comfortable with the mound when I took Chaney out. And then go after it in the ninth.”

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Remember, Worcester was up 1-0 in the series after taking Game 1 on Thursday night in a nailbiter, 3-2.

That made it an uphill climb for Nashua.

“Game 1 is like, in a three game set, the one you have to get,” Bravehearts manager Alex Dion said. “It usually allows you to relax a bit. But we just didn’t get the offensive production we needed to win games.”

Worcester lost 5-1 in Game 2 but last night had the winning run at the plate in the ninth.

“I thought my guys battled,” Dion said. “In the ninth we still had an opportunity to win the game. … Under all the circumstances we played through this summer, I’m really proud of my guys.”

Dion remembered Finals MVP Kyle Bouchard, signed late in the season by the Silver Knights.

“He played at Martha’s Vineyard when I was the hitting coach (for the Bravehearts) in 2018,” Dion said. “He was a good hitter then, and he’s a better hitter now. You go soft away he hits it up the middle. You go hard in and he either hits it out of the ballpark or it’s a double. He’s a heckuva hitter.”

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Nashua’s Dylan Jones,who wrapped up his three-year Silver Knights career with a so-important three run homer in the first.

“For me, I’d say the real championship was everybody being able to play over the summer in the first place (in spite of the pandemic),” he said. “For me being able to play here three years and win a championship was just a cap on a good college career.”

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According to the team president of both clubs but essentially once the season starts the Bravehearts general manager, Dave Peterson, a little wager was made between two mayors. That would be, of course, Nashua Mayor James Donchess, but it was made not with anyone at Worcester’s city hall but with the mayor of Leominster, Mass., Dean Mazzarella. That’s because, due to the pandemic, the Bravehearts weren’t able to play at Holy Cross as normal and Mazzarella allowed them to use Leominster’s Doyle Field.

What will Donchess get? According to Peterson, a basket of apples, a basket of peaches, dinner at Brady’s, which is a swank restaurant in Leominster, and here’s the best of all: pink yard flamingos. Why? Because those plastic lawn ornaments were created in Leominster.

Who knew?

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