Worcester catcher Cam Seymour reaches to try to tag out Nashua's Brady Desjardins at the plate in the first game of Tuesday's FCBL doubleheader at Holman Stadium. Desjardins was called out. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – Day was turning into night on Tuesday at Holman Stadium in more ways than one.

After a horrific 11-1 first game loss in a doubleheader against the Worcester Bravehearts, the Nashua Silver Knights looked like a completely different team in a 4-0 win in the nightcap to salvage a split before 848 happy fans.

“We had a meeting after the (first) game,” Silver Knights manager Kyle Jackson said. “I said there’s two ways you guys can go about this. You can hold your heads down and not even show up for Game 2 or you can pick your heads up and take it to ’em in Game 2.

“I put it on them. They did a very good job.”

There was no choice, really. It’s hard to remember a game – it ended after five innings thanks to the FCBL mercy rule – when a Nashua team looked as bad as the Knights did in the opener as the Bravehearts banged out 14 hits against five Nashua pitchers, and led 10-0 after the top of the third. Nashua’s four errors didn’t help, and even other poor plays such as losing easy fly balls in the sun, etc. A nightmare.

“Our heads just weren’t in that first game,” said Knights shortstop Carmelo Mussachia, who had a big two-run single in Game 2. “Coach Jackson, he just talked to us, told us we’ve got to have fun, got to compete. That’s what we did. We found our smiles, had some fun, and just went out there the second game and played some ball.”

The win keeps the Knights (11-17) three games behind fourth place Worcester, if you’re anxious about the standings. The Knights got a run in the first off Worcester starter Jack Sefrino as Mussachia and Jack McDermott singled, advanced on a Kyle Wolff ground out, and Mussachia scored on Shane McNamara’s sac fly to right.

It turns out the one run was all the Knights would need in the seven-inning affair, although they added three on the fourth on a Will MacLean RBI single and Mussachia’s second hit of the game for the 4-0 lead.

But it could have all turned out different, but there was a little bit of luck involved for this team – finally. Prodigal son reliever George Welch – Jackson admitted Welch’s supposed AWOL Sunday was actually an excused absence the manager had forgotten about – made the play of the game defensively. Welch, summoned to relieve spot starter Shea Ryan in the top of the fourth. Ryan left with the bases loaded and two out and Welch, the hard throwing lefty, saw a hard shot off the bat of the Bravehearts’ Joe Pesce coming toward him as he was falling off the mound. He turned and the ball somehow ended up in his glove for a game saving play. All Jackson thought was, “Thank God.”

“It was definitely luck,” said Welch. “In the momet I threw my body at the ball thinking it was going to hopefully hit my body first. But I turned around and it was in my glove. I was definitely grateful for that.”

“So much stuff has happened to us that has not gone in our favor,” Jackson said. “So for one of those plays to happen, I think it means the world to these guys. That things will turn around as long as you compete and keep your heads up.”

Did the team look at the second game as a must win?

“Definitely was a must win,” Welch said. “We went on a five-game win streak and were definitely streaky (three straight losses) after that. I feel that loss (in Game 1) put some heart back into us. This win is hopefully going to bring us to a start of another winning streak.”

They faced a Worcester team (14-14) that pounded out 22 hits but left Holman with only a split. In that opener, Worcester’s David Pedanou and Gavin Noriega both with 3 for 4 with two RBIs and scored five runs between them. Nashua starter Aven Cabral gave up six runs on eight hits in just 1.2 innings, although only two of those runs were earned.

Welch, who pitched in and out of trouble in the fifth, got the win in the nightcap, while Will Andrews tossed a scoreless sixth and seventh to secure the win.

“I’m just happy for the kids,” Jackson said. “They chose to take the high road, and you know, they didn’t have time to sulk over it. They had 45 minutes to get back out there and compete again.”

And win.

CLARK MAY RETURN SOON

Nashua starting pitcher Brayden Clark, out the last two weeks with a kidney stone that he hasn’t been able to pass, is having a minor surgical procedure to solve the problem. Jackson said it should definitely speed up his return, that the recovery time shouldn’t be long…

Nashua ETV will televise tonight’s game vs. Westfield at Holman, beginning at 6….

Nashua is on the road Thursday and Friday at Vermont, then returns home for the entire July 4 weekend, Saturday through Monday.

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