Pride slip past Spirit

Ryan Duplissie's 2-out RBI single off of Matthew Bishop in the top of the 7th scored Jay Bass and gave the Nashua Pride a 3-2 victory over the North Shore Spirit in front of an announced (emphasis on 'announced') attendance of 804 at Holman Stadium. Bishop (0-1) took the loss for the Spirit while Nashua starter Reichert sparkled in his 6th win, yielding 2 runs in 7 innings. Old friend Derrick Depriest got the save for Nashua.

North Shore opened the scoring in the 2nd inning. Jeff Brooks hit a triple over the head of CF Shawn Dobson that rolled to the wall. Alex Trezza plated him with an RBI double, making it 1-0. Nashua evened the score in the bottom of the third as Andy Dillard came around to score on a Dobson RBI single. Zach Bethen's solo HR in the bottom of the 4th- his first as a Nashua Pride- put them on top 2-1, but Vic Davilla's RBI single in the 6th scored BJ Weed to tie it before Duplissie's late heroics.

Shawn McNamara was solid starting for the Spirit tonight, scattering 8 hits over 5 innings and allowing only 2 runs, fanning 2 and walking 2. Bishop pitched the last three innings, getting the L. Luis Sabino and Ryan Bethel really struggled for the Spirit, each going 0-3. Weed was the offensive star, going 2-3 with a run scored. The offense was mainly quite weak though, epitomized in the 9th when Alex Trezza led off with a single but the Spirit failed to even advance the runner with the next three men going down in order.

Interesting storylines:
-Chris Rowan made his first appearance in a while, pinch running for Trezza in the 9th. He's still not ready to hit- he's having an MRI tomorrow on his wrist to check his status.
-There was a mini controversy in the 6th. BJ Weed slid into home uncontested as no throw was made home, but catcher Rojas felt it necessary to block the plate anyways. This prompted a brief shouting match between Weed, Davilla and Rojas.

About Nashua:
-It was a very peaceful ballpark. Pretty much silent most of the way, and there weren't many people there. The announced attendance was 804- in actuality it was no bigger than 400. So it was pretty quiet. BUT......
-When the time came, Nashua fans answered the bell, rising with 2 outs in the 9th to root on Depriest to the save. Similarly, they started cheers unprompted by the PA system or video board to root their team on during their 7th inning threat. I give the real fans up there credit- it's hard to deal with such a crappy atmosphere and still get excited and into the game. The atmosphere got a bit better as the game went on, and the sun and temperature went down.
-UNLIKE a certain other New England ballpark whose name will not be mentioned, Nashua wasn't populated with total sh!theads who were drunken losers that had a problem with everything. The only unsavory types I saw were crazy backwoods hillbillies, but thats to be expected in Cow Hampshire. I was much more demonstrative in rooting for the Spirit than I was in Brockton and yet I didn't get any crap from anyone, except some joking little kids & a few hecklers who intensified their anti-Spirit heckling. No death threats, no "eat shit," none of that classless bull. There may be only about 14 Nashua fans, but I like 'em.
-Holman has a beautiful backdrop.
-MANY Spirit staffers made the trip and populated a section of their own on the 3rd base side.

GAME 2 tomorrow nite @ 705