Nashua's River Hart leaps as his teammates greet him after his three-run homer duirng the Silver Knights' 16-11 win over Westfield in Game 1 of a doubleheader Sunday at Holman Stadium. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – Split decision.

It wasn’t the worst thing for the Nashua Silver Knights on Sunday, as they took Game 1 of their doubleheader with the Westfield Starfires at Holman Stadium by a wild 16-11 count before falling in a more tame 4-2 nightcap.

Of course, a sweep would have been much better, as it would have brough Nashua (11-14) to a game within .500. But for now, they’ll take it, especially after they fell behind 3-0 in the first game before pounding Westfield pitching for 15 hits, enjoying a nine-run third, before having to hold on for dear life after being up 13-3.

“The offense was great, and Chen (starter Andrew Chenevert) struggled but battled through it and gave us four solid,” Silver Knights manager Kyle Jackson said. “The bullpen gave up a 10-run (lead), almost gave up an eight. Too many walks, too many hit by pitches. They’ve got to figure it out, because not every time your offense is going to bail you out.”

As was shown in Game 2 when Nashua managed just xx hits. But in the opener, the nine run third was a thing of beauty, coming on five hits, four walks and two Starfire errors. The key blows for Nashua were an Aidin Zorn two-run single, Scott Donahue RBI single, and, after he began the inning with a walk, River Hart’s three run homer over the boards in left. It was his league-leading fifth round tripper of the young season.

That made it a 9-3 game, and Nashua added four more keyed by Nate Kearney and Tommy Ahlers RBI doubles in the sixth.

A breeze, right? Not when Westfield battered the Knights bullpen for five in the six and three in the seventh. It wasn’t until Nashua reliever Andres Hulfachor got a call against Westfield hitter Matt Lussier for leaning in toward a pitch for a strikeout and then ended things by fanning Aidan Redahan that the crowd of 674 could breathe easy.

In fact, Nashua would have been in trouble had it not picked up three more in the seventh with RBI hits from Zorn and Scott Donahue and a Westfield error. But during the inning the Knights got a scare when Hart, who was 2 for 2 with three runs and three RBIs, got hit on his left elbow, and had to leave the game in obvious pain. He was due for X-Rays but no word has been given yet.

“I’m going to hope for the positive,” Jackson said. “Hopefully it’s just a bad stinger and a bad bruise. He’ll go for X-Rays and we’ll find out. He’s done great. His approach, his hitting, he’s getting deep counts and great at-bats. We’ll miss him but hopefully he’ll be back.”

Zorn, Hart, and Ahlers posted three RBI games, with Kearney adding two to his three-hit performance.

QUIET BATS IN SECOND GAME

Despite totaling a plethora of runs not even an hour earlier, the Silver Knights offense simmered down in game two in a 4-2 loss. Keene State’s Jake Jachym helped a Westfield staff that struggled in the first matchup, tossing four and â…” innings with two earned runs in the seven-inning affair.

Vanderbilt’s Aidan O’Connell cruised through the first two frames for the Knights before back-to-back singles in the third opened up the scoring 1-0 Westfield.

Nashua wasted no time responding with Southern New Hampshire’s Nater Wachter ripping an RBI double. Rutgers’ Owen Carey followed Wachter with an RBI sacrifice fly to grab the Knights the lead.

A scoreless two-inning start quickly turned into both teams going blow for blow, with the Starfires posting one in the fourth to tie it back up. In the fifth, some unfortunate bounces for Dayton’s Ben Dean gave the Starfires the bases loaded. Needing just one more out to get out of it, Dean walked in a run to give Westfield the lead 3-2.

Westfield pushed another run across to make it 4-2, with the Knights not being able to overcome the deficit on offense. Carey singled to keep the final frame alive with the tying run coming to the plate, but nothing came of it with Nashua falling to give them a 1-1 record on the day.

Now 6-4 in their last 10, Nashua will look to keep the momentum going after the off-day today with another meeting with Westfield on Tuesday at Holman at 6 p.m.

(Silver Knights media relations writer Dan Allison contributed to this report.)