Silver Knight players practice their dance to the song "Love is Gone", traditionally played every sixth inning of a home Knights game, for the first time at the end of Monday's first official workout of the 2025 season. The scheduled begins Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. at Holman vs. Worcester. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – You know summer can’t be far behind when the Nashua Silver Knights get together for their first oficial workout at Holman Stadium.

That day was Monday, which, after a stretch of miserable weather, was sun splashed and warm – baseball weather. That made the day a lot easier for new Silver Knights manager Nick Guarino, his first official day on the job as he welcomed about 75 percent of the team’s roster. Even some of the high school players showed up to take batting practice before they left, as Monday was a holiday.

The team will open up here Wednesday morning at 10:30 vs. the Worcester Bravehearts. It will be the first of two Education Day games within a week. This one is expected to draw over 2,000, while the second, next Tuesday June 3 at 10:30 a.m. vs. the Bravehearts again, is reportedly a sellout already.

But Monday was an education day in itself.

“It was exciting,” Guarino said. “Came in, met some of the guys early, some of the guys got here early, were out on the field early.”

The team began workouts at 11:15 a.m. Guarino introduced himself to the hitters as they came up for batting practice, talked with pitchers in the bullpens. But he liked what he saw.

“We’re going to have a lot of good pieces in the lineup,” Guarino said. “We’ll be able to mix and match the first couple of days and see what we’ve got.”

Guarino ran the pitching program at Eastern Connecticut State, “and now I’m doing the whole team. I was a little rusty with the fungo today (grinning). It’s nothing new, all the same stuff. I’ve got Spence (pitching coach Bergeron) and Steven (hitting coach Mooney) with me, we’re all on the same page.

“Feel pretty organized, but never organized enough. That’s a good thing.”

FLAHERTY TO START OPENER

Of the pitchers that arrived on Monday, Guarino has deemed Windham’s Tommy Flaherty, set to be a senior at Worcester’s Clark University, to be the most ready to start the opener. The righthander had an outstanding spring for the Cougars, going 7-0, 3.12 with 65 strikeouts and just 18 walks in 60.2 innings pitched

“He had a really good year this year,” Guarino said. “He pounds the zone. Hopefully he’ll be one of our guys this year.”

As for length, Guarino said “Some guys are full go, some guys are building back up. Some guys are coming back on innings limits. He’ll (Flaherty) be full go on Wednesday.”

Most of the Division III players on the roster, because of the timing of when their season ended, will be full go, Guarino said. Rounding out the week, Guarino says Thursday’s starter for the 10:30 a.m.game at Worcester will be Nate Kelleher-Mochak out of Springfield, Mass. and Friday at home will be Will Perkowski of Goffstown and Dayton University. “He’ll be on lighter schedule,” Guarino said. “That will be more of an opener type start.”

STRIKES PLEASE

Pitching coach Spencer Bergeron likes what he’s seen.

“What I saw today was a lot of strikes, which is a lot different from last year,” he said. “The name of the game right now is everybody tries to throw as hard as they can, but we just want the strikes. In a wooden bat league is way different than the college league – you can get contact, you can get outs.”

Bergeron said 12 pitchers threw bullpens on Monday. “Lot of them pounded the zone, the ball was moving all over the place, which is good,” Bergeron said. “Based on the stats from their spring seasons, we’ll have good depth, good rotation.We have seven, eight, nine starters, it’s good that we can back end two guys and maybe use two starters to get to our closer. … We can have two guys get to our closer and finish off the game.”

New Silver Knights manager Nick Guarino takes a few swings during the team’s first official workout at Holman Stadium on Monday. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

HOLMAN FAMILIAR TO MOONEY

Silver Knights assistant coach Steve Mooney walked into Holman Stadium on Monday for the team’s first workout and it was familiar territory.

The former Clark teammate of Guarino had actually been to Holman to watch the Nashua win the championship in 2020. So when Guarino called the Canisius assistant coach to see if he’d be interested in joining the Knights staff,he jumped at it.

“It’s a real honor,” Mooney said. “I’ve had a lot of respect for this league, friends like Nick have played in this league. I’ve heard great things about Nashua and it’s really exciting to be here.”

Mooney’s main job will be as hitting coach, but at Canisius he coached the catchers, so he’ll work with them as well as the team defense. “Really kind of fill in slots when I’m needed,” he said. “Nick and I have a good connection, we see the game similarly.”

Mooney will likely coach third while Guarino manages from the dugout. Holman is somewhat familiar territory, or maybe it isn’t. “Being in the clubhouse, then walking on the field, it’s so different,” Mooney said. “I’m just pumped to be out here.”