Nashua Silver Knights

Nashua Silver Knights

Team Logo
Cap Insignia
League FCBL (East Division)
Location Nashua, New Hampshire
Ballpark Holman Stadium
Year founded 2010
League championships 3 (2011, 2012, 2016)
Colors Red, Black, Silver
              
Mascot Sir Sterling
Ownership Drew Weber
Management Ronnie Wallace (General Manager)
Manager B.J. Neverett
Media Home games and some away games on WSMN 1590 KHz
Website NashuaSilverKnights.com

The Nashua Silver Knights is a summer collegiate baseball team based in Nashua, New Hampshire. It is a charter member of the Futures Collegiate Baseball League (FCBL), a wood-bat league with a 56-game regular season[1] comprising 10 teams from New Hampshire to western Connecticut. The team's home games are played at Holman Stadium in Nashua. The team is owned by Drew Weber, who used to also own the Lowell Spinners, the Class A minor league affiliate of the Boston Red Sox.[2]

The Silver Knights are one of the five FCBL teams (along with Brockton, North Shore, Pittsfield, and Worcester) that play in a stadium that used to host professional baseball. The Silver Knights have won the FCBL Championship in three of the league's six years of existence, have never had a losing season, and have qualified for the post-season every year.

Ownership

The Silver Knights were a charter team of the FCBL, as Drew Weber, owner of the Spinners, wanted to also operate a franchise in the New England Collegiate Baseball League. When this was not feasible, Weber and others created the FCBL. Chris Hall, who had been the General Manager of professional and collegiate teams in Nashua, became the league's commissioner.

The name Knights was chosen over three other club nominations by a vote of Nashua grade-school students. The club modified the winner to "Silver Knights" to avoid conflict with an existing amateur baseball team in the city.[1]

Results

2011: Mike Chambers was the first field manager with B.J. Neverett and Tom Bowles assisting as coaches. The Silver Knights finished first in the regular season, with a 27-16 record. They defeated the Torrington Titans (25-17) in a best-of-three championship series.[3] The Silver Knights drew an average of 869 spectators per game,[4] far above initial expectations of 300-500 fans.[1]

2012: The league expanded from 4 to 9 teams. Neverett was promoted to field manager, with Bowles and J.P. Pyne assisting as coaches. The Silver Knights dominated the regular season with a 39-13 record. Then they swept through the Brockton Rox and North Shore Navigators to win their second consecutive FCBL Championship. PerfectGame.org named them the 26th best team in all of collegiate summer league baseball.[5]

2013: Neverett was promoted to the front office as VP of Player Development. Pyne was promoted to field manager, with Bowles assisting as pitching coach.[6] The regular-season record of 34-19 was one game behind the Martha's Vineyard Sharks (35-18). Both teams thus earned a bye from the "one-game play-in" instituted that year for the next-best four teams, and both teams won their best-of-three semifinal series in two games. But Martha's Vineyard, which had won 6 of the 7 regular-season contests against Nashua, won both games of the championship series.

2014: Ted Currle was hired as their field manager, with Jeff Dupont and Kyle Jackson assisting as coaches. Currle had managed the Martha's Vineyard Sharks in 2011 and was an assistant coach for the Brockton Rox in 2012 and 2013. The team spent most of the season around .500 and was one of four teams with similar records headed for the one-game play-in to the post-season. On August 8, the last day of the regular season, Nashua lost the right to host this play-in game, finishing the regular season at 28-26. Traveling to Torrington, Connecticut the next day, Nashua lost the play-in game in 11 innings.

2015: With the replacement of the Old Orchard Beach franchise by the Bristol Blues, Nashua moved to the East Division, joining in-state rival Seacoast Mavericks. The FCBL expanded the playoff format, allowing 8 of the 10 teams into the post-season but making the first two rounds a single game. The Silver Knights finished with a regular-season record of 28-28, fourth in the dominant East Division. They won the first-round playoff game at North Shore, but lost the second-round game the next day at Bristol. After the season, Drew Weber announced his intention to sell both the Silver Knights and the Spinners as a package.[7]

2016: The FCBL returned to the 2014 format, in which only 6 of the 10 teams qualified for the post-season. B.J. Neverett moved out of the front office and back to the field as the team's manager and took the franchise to the FCBL championship. The Silver Knights dominated the East Division early, but eventually fell 2½ games behind Seacoast for the division title with a regular-season record of 34-21. This earned them the right to host the play-in game with Torrington, but the Silver Knights were seeded lower than their subsequent two opponents, each of which elected to start its best-of-three series at Nashua. Seacoast took the semifinal series to a full three games, each won by the visiting team. The Silver Knights won both games of the championship series against Worcester, now coached by J.P. Pyne.

Weber succeeded in selling the Spinners and took the Silver Knights off the market.[8] Neverett's brother Tim became a radio broadcaster for the Boston Red Sox, and Silver Knights results were occasionally mentioned during those broadcasts. Tim's son Matt Neverett was one of the announcers of Silver Knights games on WSMN radio.[8]

Regular-season results and attendance

Year Record Place Attendance
2011 27-16 (.628) 1st 19,127 (1st of 4)
2012 39-13 (.750) 1st 28,125 (3rd of 9)
2013 34-19 (.642) 2nd 34,249 (2nd of 9)
2014 28-26 (.519) 3rd in West 35,760 (4th of 10)
2015 28-28 (.500) 4th in East 30,784 (5th of 10)
2016 34-21 (.618) 2rd in East 34,674 (5th of 10)

Post-season appearances

Year Play-In Round** Semi-Final Round* FCBL Championship
2011 Torrington Titans W (2-0)
2012 Brockton Rox W (2-0) North Shore Navigators W (2-0)
2013 bye Brockton Rox W (2-0) Martha's Vineyard Sharks L (0-2)
2014 Torrington Titans L (0-1)
2015 North Shore Navigators W (1-0) Bristol Blues L (0-1)
2016 Torrington Titans W (1-0) Seacoast Mavericks W (2-1) Worcester Bravehearts W (2-0)

2012 FCBL All-Star Game

Holman Stadium hosted the 2012 FCBL All-Star Game in front of 1,634 fans.[9] This was the FCBL's first All-Star Game, and the second time Holman Stadium hosted an All-Star Game. In 2003 the Nashua Pride hosted the Atlantic League All-Star Game.

Alumni

To find a full list of all former Silver Knights players in professional baseball visit NashuaSilverKnights.com

References

  1. 1 2 3 King, Tom (March 4, 2011). "Silver Knights are off and running in city". Nashua Telegraph. Retrieved March 30, 2011.
  2. ↑ King, Tom (February 8, 2011). "It'll be Silver Knights playing at Holman". Nashua Telegraph. Retrieved March 30, 2011.
  3. ↑ King, Tom (August 6, 2011). "Silver Knights win FCBL title". Nashua Telegraph. Retrieved August 18, 2011. And in the end, the Nashua Silver Knights franchise had the best players, capturing the inaugural FCBL Championship Cup with an 8-3 win over the Torrington Titans on Friday night to complete a two-game sweep.
  4. ↑ Editorial (August 8, 2011). "City should extend Silver Knights pact". Nashua Telegraph. Retrieved August 18, 2011.
  5. ↑ "2012 Summer Collegiate Team Rankings". Perfect Game USA. 2012-08-20.
  6. ↑ "Nashua Silver Knights promote Neverett, Pyne & Berthiaume". Nashua Silver Knights. 2012-10-04.
  7. ↑ Tom King (2015-09-06). "Spinners, Silver Knights up for sale". Nashua Telegraph. Retrieved 2016-08-13.
  8. 1 2 Tom King (2016-07-05). "Another Neverett also calls games". Nashua Telegraph. Retrieved 2016-08-13.
  9. ↑ "Minucci Shines Brightest". Nashua Silver Knights. 2012-07-26.
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