Nashua Silver Knights catcher Joey Current hopes for the call his way after Vermont's Masai Marshall slides home during a recent FCBL game at Holman Stadium. Masai won out as Nashua's bad streak of luck continued. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – Two weeks ago, there was optimism, especially on the part of Nashua Silver Knights manager Nick Guarino.

The team was starting the week 22-19, one of three of the league’s six teams above .500, trailing second place Vermont and first place Worcester. But three games were coming up vs. Vermont, and Guarino saw the full week just prior to FCBL’s All-Star break as a golden opportunity to make a move on the Lake Monsters for second.

Fast forward to late last Friday night, and Guarino was huddled in a deep conversation with Silver Knights general manager Cam Cook on just what had gone wrong with four straight losses – one a mid-week heartbreaker at Holman Stadium vs. Vermont in the ninth and the other three lackluster. Players were exiting the roster for a variety of reasons, and how to replace them, etc. Cook reminded his frustrated first-year manager that of the three teams (Nashua, Norwich,New Britain) vying for the final two playoff spots, Nashua was still ahead in third in the standings.

And that’s the way it was going into the All-Star break despite the losing streak being extended to six.

But just barely. Nashua hopes to stop a horrid slide tonight vs. Vermont at Holman Stadium in a game being televised live on NESN at 6:03 p.m. The Knights will keep their usual weeknight starting time.

It’s a horse race now, and a three things are clear: the Silver Knights going into the break were leaps and bounds behind Worcester and Vermont, and the roster was sorely in need of reinforcements as losing six arms to injuries, etc. caught up with them, as did losing the top two cogs from the first third of the season atop their lineup.

The dog days of summer arrived but they won’t last long as the regular season will conclude two weeks from this weekend.

“I think it’s just a long summer and right now we’re in the dog days of it,” Guarino said right before the break. “And I think we’ve been getting – not complacent – but guys are getting a little tired, it’s a grind, the season is a grind.

“I think the reset is going to be good for them, they’ll come back more focused, and I think they will, having something to play for the last two weeks.”

On the flip side, the last two weeks for the last two years basically for the Silver Knights meant either playing out the string or holding on to a faint playoff chance. But this team is in the thick of things. But a stretch in which two losses were close (3-1, 3-2) and four were not (10-1, 10-2, 12-6, 9-1) tell you there’s a problem, even though Nashua at the break led the league in pitching.

“I’d like to see better energy,” Guarino said. “And just better more how we were at the beginning of the year, we were more cohesive as a unit, our lineup was designed to produce runs. I think sometimes we might get a little big selfish, just at times trying to do something for ourselves. Try to get to the next guy. That’s baseball, you’re obviously here trying to get better so you’ll work on yourself, but at the same time we’re trying to win baseball games.”

That’s what Guarino said the coaching staff has been telling the players, that even though they had been struggling as of late going into the post-break, fans were still turning out at Holman.

“I’d like to see a little more buy-in,” Guarino said. “Buy in for the last three weeks and compete.We had been competing all summer and right now (as of just before the break) I think we’re not.”

OFFENSE

Guarino alluded to this in his above comments, how the lineup was configured to play a certain way. That way was get ’em on, get ’em over, get ’em in. There’s not a lot of power on this team, no Shaun McMillan (Vermont) or Jackson Marshall (Worcester) in the lineup to strike fear in the eyes of opposing pitchers and managers to pitch around, etc. and put opponents on the defensive.

You see, the Silver Knights began the season with a dynamic leadoff hitter, Eddie Little, and a contact hitter in Anthony Grabau right behind him. And a secret weapon in Cole Patterson hitting ninth, not your typical ninth hitter.

Patterson is still here, a huge component in terms of hustle and energy. But Little (back) and Grabau (knee) are done for the season. Too often innings end with ground ball outs with runners in scoring position rather than line drives in the gap. Going into the break, Nashua was last in triples with just three; fifth in homers (just 11, while Worcester has 31 and Vermont 21), fourth in runs scored, fourth in slugging, but, as a sign of what the Little Strategy was, second in steonlen bases (90). The Knights were third in batting average at .245.

But with the offense of late, there’s little room for error on the part of pitching and defense.

But the feeling is newcomer Matt Jackson could be someone opposing pitchers have trouble with, like a McMillan or Marshall. Small sample size, but in five games he was hitting .421 with a homer and four RBIs.

“He’s up there with them,” Guarino said of the lefty hitter from Stony Brook, who in the spring hit .324 with five homers and 18 RBIs in 37 games, 28 of them starts. “When Stony Brook told me about him, I said this could be the guy that comes in and just balances out what we need. We need a Guy.”

Guarino said that will complement the other hitters.

“Nothing against the guys we have now,” he said. “They’re doing what they can, they’re playing hard. They’re not out here just throwing the balls out. But this guy comes up, he’s a big dude, got a little bit of a presence, does everything the right way. You can see it when he comes up. You have a feeling ‘OK, he might be able to do something right here and get ahold of the baseball.’ We’ve been lacking the long ball all year and he’s a guy who can drive baseballs in the gap.”

The sudden lack of a potent attack certainly puts pressure on a pitching staff.

“Sometimes when you’re going through a stretch of not hitting, it’s a lot of pressure on guys,” Guarino, himself a former pitcher, said.

When Nashua’s pitching was tossing shutouts a couple of weeks ago, it possibly masked the weakness of the bat attack.

“The shutouts were great,” said Guarino. “We were doing that, but we were doing that unknowlingly. Yeah, we won three games this week and they were shutouts, but guys are hard pressed to keep doing that.

“I’m still confident it’s going to come around. I know Shrake can hit, I know Cole can hit. The guys in the outfield who were mixing and mashing can hit.”

PITCHING

As we said, the Silver Knights lead the FCBL in pitching, with a 4.16 team earned run average. But one of their best starters, Matt Fitzgibbon, reached his school imposed innings limit and is done. Another, Nate Kelleher-Mochak, is also a healthy shut down. They still have ace righty Andrew Chenevert, but his win streak of 10 over two seasons came to an end last weekend even though he pitched well. Ethan Hunt has been reliable, as has been Tommy Flaherty.

But what has happened is the relievers like Brennan Rumpf and Scott Longo have been inserted into the rotation, thus beginning to deplete the bullpen. The analytics staff was asked to search on line for arms that had more strikeouts than walks, etc., who might be available. And things were so depleted for middle relief that intern Nick Willand, who was a lefty pitcher for Nichols College, left his spot in the ticket office to throw relief innings a weekend ago.

But reinforcements from the outside, Guarino said, were on the way. The Knights have dealt with this before; their championship teams had pitchers who either were relievers or had been signed in the final week of the regular season starting playoff games.

While statistically things are going well, keept this one negative number in mind: Nashua at the break had given up the second most homers in the league at 21. And some have been in big situations and hurt. They were, however, tied with

DEFENSE

Quick, what do Chase Roberts, Will Shaheen, Anthony Grabau, Patrick Shrake and Nigel Sebastianelli have in common?

They’ve all played, at one time or another, shortstop for the Silver Knights this season. And they have all made their share of mistakes. Shaheen (left team) and Grabau (done, injury) are out, as is Sebastianelli. Shrake is more of a second baseman and a pretty good one, etc. Look, not that there haven’t been a spectacular play or two that the Holman crowd has loved. But Nashua has not had that regular glue player that can give it four to five starts a week at shortstop, and range, especially to the left, seems to be lacking.

Nashua was fourth in fielding percentage at the break at .954, and had committed the third most errors in the league (76). But there have been, as Guarino will often note, mistakes on the field that aren’t official scorer errors but errors in judgement, etc. “The little things,” he has said over and over, “are hurting us.”

Starters like Ethan Hunt will be key for the Silver Knights as they make a playoff push over the final two weeks of the FCBL regular season. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

THE SCHEDULE

It didn’t help that Nashua’s first game out of the break is against the Lake Monsters, but Guarino knows that’s a hurdle that has to be overcome.

Nor does it help that after tonigh’s Vermont game, the next seven games are on the road – two at Westfield, two at Norwich, one at New Britain, and two straight at first place Worcester.

Five of their final seven are at Holman: two vs. Westfield, two vs. Worcester, and the August 9 regular season finale vs. Vermont. The two road games are at New Britain and last place Westfield.

Meanwhile, the roster is in a state of flux. Colleges impose appearance or innings limits on pitchers, position players get hurt and schools shut them down, or some players say we’ve had enough baseball since February and that’s it. Nashua was down to 31 on the roster but five new pitchers were said to be headed the Knights’ way for the stretch run. One arrived already, former Bishop Guertin ace Sam Franco, who made a relief appearance just prior to the break.

“I think a lot of teams are dealing with that right now,” Guarino said. “You talk to some guys around the league, they’re all dealing with the same thing, a revolving door, who’s leaving, who’s staying. It’s a long season, it’s a grind. Some guys can do it, some guys can’t. I think we have to figure out how we can do it as a team with the guys that we have.

“It’s a great group of guys. No complaining at all. As team, we have to get back to the first five games of the year when we started off pretty good, doing all the little things we were doing.”

Guarino hopes any revolving door with injury replacements, etc. don’t impact the chemistry.

“We’ve had some glue guys down,” Guarino said. “It’s hard when they’re not here,not traveling.”

The one trip everyone wants to take is for a road playoff game come the second week in August. Guarino said before the break it comes down to the ‘C’ word.

“It’s a matter of us getting back to the compete factor,” he said the day after a tough 12-6 loss to New Britain. “We’ve got to compete more. And I don’t think we’re doing that.”