Silver Knights manager Kyle Jackson talks with players during the team's first workout on Wednesday. Jackson starts his third season as manager tonight, his ninth overall with the franchise. (Photo courtesy of Nashua Silver Knights)

NASHUA – They’re back, and ready to make history.

Yes, that’s what the Nashua Silver Knights can do as they open their 12th season today at Holman Stadium at 6 p.m. vs. the Pittsfield Suns, with Nashua’s Brayden Clark scheduled to oppose the Suns’ xxxx on the mound as the gates will open at 4:30.

The local Futures Collegiate Baseball League entry is the only remaining franchise from the first four still either in existence or in the league.

But, once they make it through this season, the Knights will be able to claim the title as the longest running franchise in the history of Holman Stadium.

Many would say they already are, but it’s a matter of semantics. The professional independent league Nashua Pride were here from 1998 to 2008, but the franchise was sold by then owner John Stabile and the new owners kept the team in town under the name the American Defenders of New Hampshire. That lasted just two-thirds of the 2009 season before being ousted by the city, but was technically still the same franchise as the Pride, just a different name. Get through the season – which they most certainly will – and the Silver Knights are it.

Meanwhile, this is the first real season team owner John Creedon, Jr. and his family can make a big mark since purchasing the franchise from Drew Weber back in March of 2019. They had to deal with COVID in 2020, but it could be seen as a huge victory by being able to play and win the franchise’s fifth championship.

Last year, with a somewhat limited off season due to the unknown of the pandemic, the Knights and the FCBL played a full season but Nashua missed the playoffs for the first time in its 11 seasons. Before COVID took hold, the franchise was on a fabulous sales pace under new general manager Cam Cook in 2020.

“It’s really been three years of sort of getting our legs underneath us,” Creedon said. “The first year my family and I took over and sort of got through the 2019 season. Then 2020 was shaping up well, and then the world collapsed and we were battling COVID the last two years.”

This year, there ‘s a different feeling.

“There was a lot of lingering uncertainty in 2021,” Creedon said. “In 2022, there’s a lot more certainty, familiarity. … We’re sort of adapting, learning to live with (the pandemic), work around it, and get back to great summer nights at Historic Holman Stadium. We’re working closely with the city of Nashua. Everybody’s been going through hell the last couple of years.”

Creedon feels the league is “as strong as it’s ever been. Stable at eight teams. … We’re absolutely psyched for a great summer ahead.”

The Silver Knights have kept themselves relevant in the toughest of circumstances, some would say.

“I absolutely agree with that,” Creedon said. “People can say what they want that we operated in 2020, whether that was good or bad. It was a challenge. But operationally, it gave us a jump start on the rest of the world. … It gave us a leg up so in 2021 we had already done it once. … A body in motion stays in motion. A body at rest stays at rest.”

There’s been no rest in Nashua. Ticket sales, sponsorship sales, etc. are all up according to Creedon and general manager Cam Cook. The team is treating tonight as a soft open, looking at a week from Friday as their big night, dubbed “603 Night”, a celebration of New Hampshire.

“Advertising is way ahead, ticket sales are ahead, and we’re encouraged by all that,” Creedon said. “We’re happy that companies, youth organizations, and non-profit organizations are comfortable (with coming to games). … We couldn’t be happier with that.”

With the staff, led by Cook and assistant GM Katie Arend, Creedon has seen “growth, development, maturation, and we’ve got some great initiatives on tap for the summer.”

Cook said that now “it’s all excitement, not really any stress or anxiety or anything. Year four of it, that’s kind of the key. From the coaches, to the front office, to the interns, to the players, to the fans, everybody’s excited.”

The Knights will be home tonight, Saturday at 6 vs. Worcester, and will play at Holman on Memorial Day for the first time ever, a 1 p.m. matinee vs. Westfield. Tickets can be purchased at the ticket office or on line.

The only thing missing tonight is a ring ceremony, which the team has had for five of its 12 openers.

“Unfortunately there’s no ring ceremony this year,” Cook said, “but hopefully we’re having a different conversation next opening day.”

Indeed, the team is recovering from a 27-38 season a year ago. A handful of players are back as Kyle Jackson enters his third season as manager, but he and Cook set out to get a roster that is somewhat older than last year’s.

STARTING POWER, OTHER NOTES

Clark, a sophomore from Beverly, Mass., threw 60 pitches for Salve in the NCAA Division III Regionals and left after four innings, allowing three runs on five hits. Salve eventually won the game over Earlham College but was eventually eliminated. Overall Clark went 6-2, 2.83 with 63 strikeouts in 60.1 innings….

Pittsfield’s starter, Cianciolo, is out of UMass Boston, and pitched for Pittsfield last summer but suffered a torn labrum. He’s had surgery and is reportedly 100 percent….

The Suns, who lost to Vermont in last year’s FCBL finals, have a new manager, former Sun player Kevin Donati, a Pittsfield native. Former manager Matt Gedman, son of former Red Sox catcher and current WooSox hitting coach Rich Gedman, left to become the hitting coach of the New Britain Bees….

Pittsfield has about eight returnees from last year’s runnerup squad…

Fans will see some new things around the ballpark, including fried dough for concessions, but the team is also marketing the left field picnic area, with tables and umbrellas as the “Corona Cabana”.