With the Nashua Silver Knights losing 14 of their past 17, the mood at Holman Stadium was that of a funeral. If it hadn’t been for Sunday night, the funeral may have been for the team playing.

The Silver Knights defeated the Seacoast Mavericks 9-4 in a breakout game for Nashua, bouncing back from a rough streak of games with a relieving victory.

“[Thomas] Joyce had a good game,” Silver Knights manager B.J. Neverett said. “[Tom] Blandini played well. [Bonicki] played a great game. He’s starting to look like the guy we saw last year.”

Rebounding from missed chances in Saturday’s game, the Silver Knights got on the board early. In the second inning, Kyle Bonicki reached third base on a fielding error charged to Seacoast’s left fielder, and scored when Thomas Joyce singled.

“We don’t do well playing from behind,” Neverett said about the importance of scoring first. “I think our pitchers pitch with more confidence when we’re ahead. We’ve got guys that can keep pouring it on, ‘cause we got some speed and we got some guys that can run. We had some guys who had really good at-bats tonight.”

The Mavericks scored their only runs in the ninth inning on four consecutive walks, a double and a single. Manny Ray, for Nashua, recorded the final two outs of the game.

Nashua continued to get on base in the third, scoring two. The inning was highlighted by a double from Harry Roberson and single by Anthony Meduri.

The Silver Knights scored three in the fourth inning, prompted by four consecutive singles to start the frame.

Nashua starter StigErik McElhinney was taken out of the game prior to the sixth inning, after pitching five shutout frames with three strikeouts only one walk.

“He was able to get his off-speed stuff in the zone, which helped him,” Neverett said of McElhinney’s strong start. In his last outing, McElhinney gave up five runs in four innings.

“He had better stuff today,” said Neverett. “He had a little more life on his fastball. He got ahead of batters.”

For the Mavericks, the bleeding didn’t stop after the fourth. With the bases loaded and no outs, Seacoast relief pitcher Sam Nepiarsky nearly worked out of the jam by inducing two shallow fly balls, before walking Luke Tyree to score one.

Silver Knights reliever Jason Johndrow loaded the bases in the seventh with two singles and a walk, but came out of the inning unscathed after a strikeout and flyout.

The next step for Neverett’s Silver Knights is to win tomorrow. It may sound trivial, but the last time Nashua won back-to-back games was July 11th and 12th.

At this point in the season, every last victory counts, but some matter more than others. Today’s spoke volumes about a team that’s been struggling to win.