Nashua's Hunter Troiano leaps to grab the throw while Lowell's Quinn Murphy steals second in the first inning of Thursday night's FCBL game at Historic Holman Stadium.(Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – The lights were bright, and the Nashua Silver Knights basked under them on Thursday night.

Yes, the monsoon of 5 p.m. became the 7 p.m. start of baseball at Historic Holman Stadium. And the Knights showed not just the announced 2,226 who were in the park but the New England region watching on NESN what they’re capable of in a 10-4 win over the Lowell Spinners that wasn’t as close as the final score indicated.

As a result, the Lions Cup that the Nashua and Lowell Lions Clubs were awarding the winner of the season series already goes to the Knights. They’re 6-0 vs. the Spinners already with five more games to play in the next six weeks. That’s called a clinch.

The Silver Knights pounded out 17 hits, got six shoutout innings from starter Will Perkowski, and the game was never in doubt after Nashua scored five in the first of Lowell starter Ian Keusch (1-4).

There was a method to the Knights’ madness, as they decided not to be so patient at the plate. Five of Nashua’s first six hitters reached safely and Keusch had thrown just 11 pitches in the span.

“Tonight we were swinging early in counts,” Nashua’s Nate Kearney of Londonderry said after his 2 for 5, two RBI night that included a big first-inning triple. “First pitch fastball, second pitch. We were getting ahead in the count, and that’s when guys can get their ‘A’ swing off.”

Kearney certainly did, and also in that inning, Hudson Story had an RBI double, Peter Keblinsky had a two-run hit, and the outcome was really decided vs. a 5-15 Lowell team.

Knights manager Nick Guarino says it was all part of the plan.

“Credit to the guys upstairs,” he said of the team’s analytics crew. “They gave us the numbers where we were over 80 percent taking first pitch strikes and over 80 percent taking 1-0 pitches. So it’s been like ‘Hey guys, we’ve got to start swinging earlier. We’re taking too many strikes, too many 0-1 counts. Let’s try to be aggressive here. (Keusch) was going to be in the zone, we knew that, we took advantage of it and had good swings. The lineup the last couple of days has been swinging.”

And last night Perkowski was pitching. Or to be clearer, dealing. Usually a Friday pitcher, Guarino asked the team’s ace who just recently committed to Southern New Hampshire University while leaving Dayton, if he’d like to pitch the NESN game a day early.

“I said ‘That’d be awesome,'” said Perkowski, who held Lowell to just three hits and walked two while striking out six. “It’s cool. You watch the Red Sox on NESN so I had an opportunity to come do that it was awesome.”

Plus he wanted to erase the memory of his one bad start this season last Friday at Worcester.

“He was dominant,” Guarino said. “Confident. He was dominant his last start until he lost it in the third inning. … I think he had something prove today after his last start, too – one of the better pitchers in the league and you get tagged for a few runs, not a good feeling and you have to sit around a week to think about it.”

Now he can think better thoughts. Nashua heads to Vermont tonight, has Saturday off an hosts Worcester Sunday in the annual Father’s Day Game at Holman.

Nashua’s Will Perkowski tossed six shoutout innings in a 10-4 win over Lowell on Thursday night at Holman Stadium. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

Meanwhile, offensively Nashua got a 4 for 5, three runs scored night from leadoff hitter Phoenix Williams. Keblinsky had three hits and three RBIs, Story, Connor Smith, Caleb Vacchiano all had two hits. Defensively, Connor Smith made a big catch in front of the left field brick wall,perhaps saving a homer, and was mobbed by youth baseball players who were right by the wall in the picnic area.

It was that kind of night, except for one baserunning blunder and a mental miscue in the ninth that saw Lowell score three meaningless runs. But the tons of kids who ran the bases after didn’t seem to mind.

“We’re in every game and we know that,” Guarino said. “It’s just a matter of trying to limit the mental mistakes and we talked about that just now.”

The Cup is theirs, but the Silver Knights know what it will take to win a lot more than that.