Nashua's Patrick Shrake gets into second safely while New Britain's Chaz Wright bobbles the throw in the first inning of Friday night's FCBL game at Holman Stadium. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – In the seventh inning of Friday night’s Nashua-New Britain FCBL game at Holman Stadium, the World Famous Monkey Boy handed a bouquet of flowers to a girl in the stands on the first base side.

He probably should have delivered it to the Silver Knights dugout. They could use some cheering up.

Suddenly, the Nashua season is headed in reverse as the Knights lost their fourth straight, 12-6, to the Bees before the final Fireworks crowd of the season, 2,787 strong.

“I feel like we’ve just got to be better,” center fielder Cole Patterson said. “Overall the chemistry’s been a little low. We’ve got to learn how to lose, and we’ve got to learn how to win better. We’ll be all right though.”

Since that tough loss to Vermont on Wednesday, Nashua has been outscored 22-8. In fact, the week has not been pretty, outscored in the four games 35-10. Ugh.

“We’re done talking about negatives,” Silver Knights manager Nick Guarino said, the first-year skipper facing his first mini-crisis with his team now below .500 at 22-23. “Can’t keep dwelling on that stuff in a losing streak….

“The mindset is three-game series for the weekend, you’re 0-1 vs. Vermont (tonight’s opponent at Holman), go win two now.”

For this team, it seems easier said than done this week anyway. Even gone now is Silver Knights’ starter Andrew Chenevert’s 10-game winning streak as a starter, as he suffered his first loss since early August of 2023. He left after four innings with New Britain leading 3-2, and Nashua could never grab the lead back.

Part of Nashua’s problem has been its offense or lack of it. Despite having nine hits, the Knights didn’t deliver often enough with runners in scoring position. They took a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the third thanks to three straight walks issued by New Britain starter Colin Blake, but couldn’t get that one big hit to perhaps break things open. And thus the Bees got the lead right back in the top of the fourth on Dylan Mayer’s booming RBI double and an RBI single by David Pengel. Pengel, in the ninth spot, went 3 for 5 with five RBIs, a key run-scoring infield single in the team’s three-run sixth and a bases-clearing triple in the Bees’ six-run top of the ninth that broke the game open off reliever Hunter Ward (farewell 0.00 ERA).

Two plays typified the Knights’ night: on Pengel’s infield RBI hit in the sixth, shortstop Chase Roberts didn’t deliver the ball in time to first on a grounder to his left up the middle. Tim Hennig followed with a two-run triple off Knights reliever Nolan Mederos for a 6-2 lead.

And leading off the ninth, somehow Nashua’s Keldrin Rodriguez couldn’t get his foot down on the bag at first after a flip from Ward, a simple 1-3 play. It ignited a six-run Bees explosion.

The positives? Down 6-2, Nashua plated three in the sixth on RBI hits by Roberts and Matt Jackson to bring them within 6-5. But Jackson got caught stealing to end the rally. Jackson also got a break in the ninth, awarded a home run when the ball clearly bounced over the wall. But you see, were it not for the big NB ninth, that would have tied the game.

“We answered with a three spot, and we answered their six-spot,” Guarino said. “It’s tough, right? Everyone’s trying to press a bit. We talked about just relax, go out there and have fun and play loose.

“It wasn’t as embarrassingly bad as (Thursday in Worcester). The energy was better, the at-bats were a little bit better. We’ve got to just try to put it all together. Right now we’re not doing that. We’re playing one out of every three aspects of the game instead of three out of three.

“It’s a snowball effect. Whatever can go wrong is. But we’ve got to stay positive. We’re still in a playoff spot, there’s still a lot of games left.”

Monkey Boy zaps New Britain’s Jared Clark during Friday night’s FCBL game at Holman Stadium. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NOTES

Infielder Ernie Little was given the night off to rest his back after playing in two straight games…

Nashua will send Ethan Hunt to the hill today at 6 p.m., and newcomer Nigel Cross (Wentworth) on Sunday at Vermont…

Thursday’s starter, Brennan Rumpf, slightly injured his elbow and has been shut down by UMaine, so there’s another starter gone as the All-Star break is two games away. “We could use the break,” Guarino said.