Nashua Silver Knights players practice the team's usual "Love is Gone" dance, many of them for the first time, at the end of Wednesday's first workout of the 2024 season at Holman Stadium. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – It’s an annual rite of late spring.

Nashua Silver Knights manager Kyle Jackson, on the first day of Holman Stadium workouts for the upcoming season, basically has to let players know who the heck he his.

“I’m about to go head out (to the outfield) to talk to those guys and introduce myself,” Jackson said, which drew a chuckle. “Every year.”

But while the routine may be the same, Jackson certainly doesn’t want the results to be the way they were in 2023, when the Knights finished way out of the playoffs in seventh place. But that hasn’t tempered his enthusiasm to begin anew as the 2024 team gathered together for the first time in advance of Friday night’s FCBL season opener at Holman vs. Vermont.

“I’ve been looking forward to this,” Jackson said. “Me and Cam (GM Cook), we’ve been talking about these players, and to seem them here in the flesh has been fun to see. See them on the baseball field, hear the bat, hear them talking, it’s fun to see. Ready for the season.”

And he’s certainly hoping it’s not a repeat of last season. In his mind, the team was behind before they even took the field.

“We lost 16 kids at the beginning of the season,” Jackson said. “So, and the kids we put out there played their butts off, it just didn’t go our way. But this year we haven’t lost anyone. The guys we expected to be here on time are here. It’s exciting for Cam and I to have these guys show up. I think we’ve got some 30-plus guys. And we have all our starters (pitchers) set for the weekend.”

Jackson is glad there are a group of returners who can help out the new players. “If they have any thoughts or questions on how I coach, they can (find out) from a player’s point of view rather than me just saying ‘This is how I coach’. It’s easier for a player to say it.

“I just told them to give 110 percent, the fans will be on you if you don’t. They’re on me when I hold a guy up (at third). But they’re excited. We’ve got a great group of guys from winning programs.”

Jackson made one thing clear: Last season was not a case in which he hated to come to the ballpark. Any bad feelings he had were basically in sympathy for his players, whom he felt played very hard.

“It was tough because I felt for the players,” he said. “I kept running the same guys out over and over again because they were giving us our best opportunity. They kept battling every game and wanted to win. It never went the way that they didn’t want to be at the field of play.So that was the encouraging part for me.”

The Knights tried to make a late push, with with so many makeups due to rain – a tripleheader in Pittsfield, a doubleheader soon after – it was, as Jackson said, “Way too much for any team.”

But the bottom line in Jackson’s mind was that it was a roster that didn’t mesh.

“It was a mix-match of a lot of guys coming and going, and us adding a whole bunch at the beginnng of the year, and trying to get the most out of them. I think we did.

“I know our record didn’t show it, I hope the fans were happy with how they competed, even though the results weren’t there. No one is ever happy with a loss. … It was rough standing wise. But it wasn’t rough knowing you were coming to the ballpark. They didn’t shy away from the big moment. They wanted it. But other teams, they put it together.”

Jackson said his team will be able to put it together as well.

“We’re going to come out of the gates and compete hard and have a great (pitching) staff lined up,” he said. “A lot of key guys we brought in to be in the bullpen. We’re not losing any talent when we make substitutions or change up the roster, and we’ll keep them engaged.”

GLAD FOR BERGERON’S RETURN

Jackson is thrilled to have former Spencer Bergeron come back and team up in that same role with last year’s coach, Noah Wachter.

“I think he and Noah are a great duo,” he said. “Noah’s more of the analytics-nerd type, Spencer is more of a hands on approach, so I think with those two dealing with the pitchers and talking on an every day basis, understanding what they’re roles were at school, I think that’s going to be a great help for us.”

Brendan Martin, a Nashua South assistant coach, will also return, mainly for home games. “I talked to the guys about him, that he’ll be the great all-around baseball coach that loves the game of fielding and hitting. It’s going to be a lot less on my plate … To be able to relinquish some of the roles and say ‘Hey, you take that, if you have any questions, come to me, that’s what I’m here for.”

Nashua Silver Knights manager Kyle Jackson shares a laugh while throwing batting practice at the team’s first 2024 workout Wednesday at Holman Stadium. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

WEEKEND ROTATION SET

Pace University’s Vinny Civitella, a lefty from Clifton, N.J.was tabbed by Jackson to be the Opening Night starter on Friday, followed by Stonehill’s Braydon Gray on Saturday, who was here last year, and another holdover, Saint Anselm’s Andrew Chenevert.

But you better enjoy Gray while you see him. He got an opportunity to pitch in the Valley League based in Virginia, so he will leave after then and return sometime in July, Jackson said.

“I told him just come make your start on Saturday, go, and then come back,” the manager said. “He got an opportunity, they wanted him to pitch.”

Civitella, Jackson said, is thrilled to have the chance. He went 6-3, 3.17 in 12 starts this spring. “I let him know, he’s excited for the opportunity,” Jackson said. More on him prior to Friday…

ROAD WARRIORS

What does Jackson think of the road team that is taking up Pittsfield’s travel schedule while the Suns take a year sabbatical. The games that were originally scheduled at Pittsfield will be days off.

“I love it because I have a day off now,” said Jackson, who has his hands full with two young kids at home, with a chuckle. “But you know what? It’s good for those guys to make a team, to have the opportunity whether that roster changes 100 times during the season … Those kids are going to come out. If I was that coach (Brendan Morrissey), I’d tell the players ‘Hey, you might get an opportunity at another place. Don’t go out there and give up. I don’t think they are.”

Of course, the rub may be that the team, playing just 32 games, would qualify for the playoffs if it wins enough games. FCBL Commissioner Joe Paolucci said it has to be that way to give the players a big incentive.

“I don’t mind,” Jackson said. “If they’re playing 30 something games, and they go 25-6, they should be in the playoffs.”

BUSY STADIUM

The Holman Park-Recreaton crew led by Scott Painter was busy getting things ready for Friday’s opener, including Painter himself as the Bishop Guertin team he coaches wasn’t playing until last night…..

Knights owner John Creedon, Jr. was on hand working near the concessions area in right field, and then moved around the stadium, busy as ever…

The stadium stands and concourse were also being power washed….

Best moment of the day: When the new players had to run through the dance rendition the team has always done during the middle sixth of “Love is Gone”. Returnees did it once as an example, and then the new players, the majority of the group, repeated it with them…

The team will work out again this morning at 10:30 until around 1 p.m.

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