The Nashua Silver Knights and Keene SwampBats will clash in a two-game exhibition series this summer. (Graphic courtesy of Silver Knights)

NASHUA – This summer at Holman Stadium and Keene’s Alumni Stadium, worlds will collide.

In an unprecedented move, the Nashua Silver Knights and Keene SwampBats announced on Friday they will play a home-and-home two-game exhibition series this July.

What’s so astounding about this? It’s two of the most successful franchises from rival summer collegiate baseball leagues getting together on the field, the SwampBats from the older New England Collegiate Baseball League (NECBL) and the Silver Knights of course from the Futures Collegiate Baseball League (FCBL).

The first game will be at Holman Stadium on Monday July 13 at 6 p.m., with the second two weeks later on Tuesday, July 28 at Alumni Field at 6:30 p.m.

“We’re thrilled to bring the Granite State Showdown to life this summer,” Silver Knights GM Cam Cook said. “The opportunity for two longstanding organizations with championship pedigrees in different leagues to come together is going go create an incredible experience for our fans across New Hampshire.”

“The SwampBats are proud to bring together two great baseball organizations,” Keene general manager Kevin Watterson said in a statement. “Our fans will not be disappointed in these special evenings of summer collegiate baseball.”

Both teams have one major thing in common: They’ve both captured six championships in their respective leagues. Nashua begins its 16th season in late May, Keene starts its 29th season in June.

Now the question is, how did this come about? Cook and Watterson had been talking, and just felt it was an idea whose time had come.

“It’s an awesome concept,” Cook said. “It’s kind of like interleague play (in the Majors).”

Of course they are still rival leagues. The FCBL has lost North Shore, Martha’sVineyard, and Bristol (Conn.) to the FCBL after those franchises were significant; MV was actually one of the original four franchises. Nashua is the lone original left. Lowell, meanwhile, used to have a franchise in the NECBL in 2000 and after a few years, after the Spinners dominated the landscape, moved to Maine. And now Lowell is set to make its Futures League debut this season, likely as Nashua’s chief rival.

Also, there’s a few other significant differences: The FCBL is a for-profit league; franchises are run as businesses, which is one reason why the season begins earlier and goes much longer. Also, the NECBL is non-profit, and said to be partially subsidized in some ways by Major League Baseball, and usually has more Division I players. But because its season ends a couple weeks earlier than when the FCBL wraps up its finals near mid-August, some NECBL players may finish their summer as FCBL add ons before the league freezes its roster usually a week prior to the playoffs.

“Historically there’s different schools of thought as far as NECBL vs.the Futures League, in terms of – it’s kind of like Lowell, right?” Cook said. “It’s kind of competition, but we’re also the same.

“People have gone to their league, but people have joined our league instead o their league. If it was another team in the NECBL, maybe it wouldn’t be happining. If it were another team in the Futures League, maybe it wouldn’t be happening. But they love the idea because … we’re the only two summer collegiate ball teams in New Hampshire any more. We’re kind of two sides of the same coin.”