Nashua Silver Knights mob catcher Nate Goranson, top center, after his bases loaded walk in the bottom of the 10th inning gave the team a 3-2 win over the Vermont Sea Monsters Friday night at Holman Stadium. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – Before the snap, crackle and pop in the sky above Holman Stadium on Friday night, there was a snap by the manager, some crackle from the players, and the pop of the Gatorade jug being opened and poured on Nashua Silver Knights catcher Nate Goranson.

It all added up to the 1,623 fans being treated to fireworks before the fireworks as the Silver Knights rallied from a 2-0 deficit to walk off against Vermont, 3-2, in 10 innings on Goranson’s bases loaded walk.

It was one of those bottle-it-up nights at Holman, as manager Kyle Jackson watched the last few innings from the luxury suites after being tossed by umpire Will Martin arguing a call at second. And that seemed to change the entire night on a night that the Knights (6-13) hope changes the season.

“Very big momentum shift for us,” Goranson said. “We were a little down in the dumps and needed something to kick us right in the butt. This game was electric and exactly what we needed.”

And their manager getting ejected may have helped, too.

“We know KJax cares about us a lot, that just showed us even more he’ll go out and get tossed for us, just to keep the umpires in check,”Goranson said. “Just to fire us up.”

It certainly fired up reliever Nick Remy of Atkinson, whom Jackson took out of the rotation recently, figuring he’d be more effective as a reliever. Remy walked four but fanned six, and was incredibly animated at the end of every inning.

And it sparked something in hitter Kyle Hannon (two RBIs), who nearly incited a bench clearing incident when he went at Sea Monsters catcher Tyler Favretto for something he said after Hannon struck out with two on to end the night.

“I didn’t realize it until I walked off and was getting clapped,”Jackson said of the impact of being tossed. “I think the kids responded because it’s a very frustrating thing to be in a losing streak, and how are you going to get out of it? Whether it’s them or me.

“Credit to those kids and to Remy for coming in those three innings, that was huge.”

“He was aggressive,” Nashua pitching coach and eventual acting manager Ariel Ramos said. “He was three or four pitches into each batter.”

Vermont had taken a 2-0 lead in the the fourth off Nashua starter Wyatt Scotti, who otherwise was effective over seven, allowing just five hits while fanning five and not walking anyone.

He just gave up singles by Noah Granet and Chris Brown in the frame, the former scoring on an RBI groundout by Jakob Bullard and the latter on Dan Carinci’s RBI single.

But that was it for the Monsters, and the rest of the game would belong to Nashua. The Knights got a run in the fifth on Kevin Skagerlind’s triple and a Hannon sac fly, and tied it in the seventh on a Hannon RBI single.

Enter the bottom of the 10th, with righty sidewinder Isaiah Rhodes entering the game on the mound for Vermont.

Connor Hujsak – quickly becoming a player who makes things happen – led off with a broken bat single. But after he fanned Dylan O’Sullivan and Sam McNulty with a slider that tailed away, Logan Ott singled and Matt Orlando walked on five pitches to load ’em up.

Goranson was next, and he and Ramos talked it over.

“Nate came up to me and he’s like ‘He’s thrown five balls, I’m going to sit on (the pitches),'” Ramos said. “I said, ‘You know what, get up close to the plate and make him work. Everything else is going away from you (as a right-handed hitter). That way if you do hit, you’re hitting to the furthest part of the field (right), we’ve got a guy on third he’s coming home.

We had to cut down the side.”

“My approach was to crowd the plate and shrink the strike zone on him,” Goranson said. “I was taking until it would get to two strikes. Make him find the strike zone again. Which fortunately for him he didn’t, and fortunately for us we got the victory.”

“It was definitely a must-win game,” Ramos said. “Right before BP we had a good conversation with the guys, and I think they understood what they needed to do to get on top. They just focused. … Just want to win.”

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