Nashua third baseman Noah Lucier tags out Norwich's Bryan Loriga during the Sea Unicorns' 9-4 win at Holman Stadium on Saturday night. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – The road is long, the road is hard — especially when four games are crammed into two days.

And it can make that first game back home a rough one.

Perhaps that is what happened to the Nashua Silver Knights on Saturday night, as they were humbled 9-4 by the Norwich Sea Unicorns before a Holman Stadium crowd of 1,236 after back-to-back road doubleheader splits at Pittsfield and Westfield.

That and the fact the team really is in a state of flux with many comings and goings.

“It’s a team that is both,” Silver Knights manager Kyle Jackson said after his team was outhit 17-4. “There’s a reason why we don’t (usually) do doubleheaders back to back, and get home at 2 o’clock in morning from Pittsfield and 1 a.m. From Westfield when the first game didn’t start til 5 and it was supposed to start at 3:30.

“And we’re trying to figure ourselves out. Guys are coming in, guys are leaving; it’s a rotating thing.”

But, of course, the performance on the field needs to not rotate, but be more consistent, as the Knights fell to 5-9.

“Right now the defense (four errors last night) has to be better, the pitching has to be a lot better,” Jackson said. “Too many 0-2 hits, 1-2 hits. Changes have to be made to where they have to have confidence in themselves, and right now I think they’re down.”

Nashua also managed just four hits, and scored four runs in the first without the benefit of a hit thanks to four walks (Sam McNulty walk with the bases loaded) a hit-by-pitch (Lucas Carmichael) and two passed balls.

John Mesagno and Bryan Loriga each had two RBIs, Loriga hitting a game-tying double in the Unicorns’ three-run fourth, that also featured a Dean

Slavin go-ahead single. Mesagno added another RBI hit for a 6-4 lead and the Sea Unicorns were swimming away. Nashua’s starter Jack Beauchesne was the victim ofsome of it (four runs on seven hits over three innings), but reliever Tristan Corcoran took the loss, as he was the victim in the fifth. Also, Knights pitching couldn’t find a way to get Sea Unicorns leadoff hitter Kaelen Culpepper out. All he did was go 5 for 6 with two RBIs and two runs scored.

Norwich (8-8) was put together quickly as it didn’t become an FCBL franchise until early April. Yet they’ve left Holman with two wins in the last week.

“They’re all Connecticut kids and they’ve been together three weeks,” Jackson said. “We have bits and pieces that are coming in and out.

“We haven’t formed as a team yet. I think in a week, everyone gets here, the roster gets set, we’ll have a meeting, just sit, and time to move forward.”

CHANGES

Some players on temporary contracts were scheduled to leave after the game: Joe Muzio, Trey Ciula-Hall, Sam LaChance, Mike Maher, and Craig Corliss are headed out.

Griffin Young will arrive later this week, and other players will be in as well from teams whose college post seasons are done.

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