A record sun-splashed Education Day crowd of 4,012 was a key ingredient in the Silver Knights win Wednesday at Holman Stadium. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – There’s something about a franchise record Holman Stadium crowd of 4,012, mainly consisting of loud, enthusiastic local school kids, to motivate a floundering baseball team.

It’s too bad every day can’t be Education Day for the Nashua Silver Knights, but they did learn something on Wednesday: When they play the game of baseball the way it’s supposed to be played, they can do pretty well and everyone goes home (or back to school) happy. That’s what happened in their 6-2, streak-snapping win over the Brockton Rox.

“I think it loosened them up,” Nashua manager Kyle Jackson said of the crowd. “They’re going to scream if you do a sac bunt, it doesn’t matter. They’re here to watch you so enjoy it and be the best player that you can be. For them to go out their and put a W in front of the fans, finally, it’s good momentum.”

They certainly needed it, and didn’t have much time to dwell on the night before’s disasterous 19-run loss to Westfield that featured 14 walks and 10 wild pitches. Watching Knights starter Erik Sibbach pitch was like a breath of fresh air as he tossed six innings of two-hit shutout ball, walking three and striking out four, with a couple of hit batsmen.

“The past few games have definitely been a little rough as a team,” Sibbach said. “But behind the big crowd we had today … I think it was huge. I think we fed off the energy a lot. … It was special.”

And the baseball was night and day from what’s been happening – five straight losses, outscored 37-2 in their last three games. But Nashua took its first home lead of the season when Londonderry’s Shane McNamara rocked a 2-2 pitch from Brockton’s Jimmy Gilleran the opposite way over the left field billboards for a two-run homer.

“We played much better today,” McNamara said. “On the home run, two-strike approach, find a good place to hit. I had gotten a little bit too big, I had to shorten up, stay short to the ball, stay on top of it.”

And the Knights stayed on top. Cam Carignan smacked an RBI double in the second to make it 3-0, and Nashua broke it open with three in the sixth. Shane Wockley doubled and Nick O’Connor singled him in. O’Connor later scored on a Jake Hatch RBI ground out. The Knights weren’t done, though, as Carignan hit an RBI ground rule double to score Paltridge, who had singled.

“They’re putting themselves at better counts,” Jackson said. “Swinging at the fastballs that are down the middle or middle-in, instead of being behind in the count and always on the defensive. For them to go on the offense was kind of nice.”

Nashua native Alex Meesig tossed a scoreless seventh and eighth but was touched up for two runs in the ninth before another Nashuan, Corey O’Day closed it out. All in all, Nashua, which has today off before Friday’s championship ring ceremont game at Holman vs.New Britain, was solid.

“That was a complete game by offense, defense, base running,” Jackson said. “(Tuesday) night was a reset for everybody. Cam (GM Cook) had a talk with them and said, ‘Hey, this is the most people you’re going to be playing in front of, enjoy the moment. Sibbach did well giving us six innings, and the hitting looked more aggressive and under control. … He got ahead a lot which was good. He’ll keep progressing more and more, get more comfortable.”

Sibbach said the most he’d ever played in front of in high school or college has been about 150. So yesterday was huge. Players were signing tons of autographs after and even during the game.

“To see these guys smile during a game was a lot easier,” Jackson said. “Being involved instead of just sitting wondering what’s going to happen.”

“All these kids were having fun,” McNamara said. “So I tried myself to have fun, too.”

It beats losing by 19 runs, that’s for sure.