After being omitted from the lineup on Opening Day, University of Massachusetts-Amherst junior catcher Will Briggs started behind the plate and batted seventh for the Starfires in Thursday morning’s matchup against the Nashua Silver Knights at Bullens Field.
The decision to start Briggs made the difference for the Starfires, as the righty catcher went 4-for-4 with two home runs and four RBI. His three-run home run in the bottom of the seventh gave the Starfires the lead for the first time all game, and a lights-out Starfires bullpen shut down the visiting Silver Knights, for a final score of 8-5.
The victory marks the first win of the 2026 season for the Starfires, who are now 1-1.
University of Massachusetts-Boston senior Cam Fisher quickly found himself in trouble in his start for the Starfires. His first pitch of the game was grounded to Starfires’ shortstop and Hobart College junior Jack O’Neil, who was unable to field the ball, putting a Silver Knight on first. Fisher hit the next two batters, loading the bases with no outs. After getting the next Silver Knight to fly out, Fisher let up a run as Bryant University junior Hudson Story hit a hard grounder past the left side of the Starfires infield, making it 1-0. With the bases still loaded, Towson University junior A.J Kolb hit a weak groundout to 2nd, as another Silver Knight came across to score, extending the Silver Knights’ lead to 2-0.
In the bottom of the first, the Starfires were able to get singles from UMass Amherst junior Vance Bonior and Stonehill College senior Jamison Howland against Silver Knights lefty starter Dimitri Skourides, but the two Starfires were left stranded after Skourides got the final two outs of the inning with a strikeout and a flyout.
Fisher began the second inning on a strong note, striking out his first batter of the game. However, his control problems continued, as Fisher plunked Noah Stead, putting the Silver Knights shortstop on first. The next batter singled to left field, putting men on first and second. Fisher got another out as Silver Knights right fielder Ben Peterson popped out to O’Neil. With two outs in the inning, the Silver Knights called the double steal, and Briggs was unable to get a throw down, putting Silver Knights on second and third. Silver Knights catcher Sam Gettinger hit a hard grounder to Cornell sophomore and Starfires third baseman Aiden Barclay, whose throw to first was unable to be corralled by an outstretched Easton Sanders, allowing two more runs to come around unearned. The top of the second ended with the Silver Knights up, 4-0.
The Starfires responded in the bottom of the inning, as with one out, Briggs sent his first home run of the game over the left field fence, scoring the first run of the game for the Starfires to make the score 4-1. O’Neil followed up Briggs with a single to center field, before St. Joseph’s senior J.J Fox smacked a single of his own into right field. With runners on first and second, Bonior drove another single into the outfield, bringing O’Neil around to score to make it 4-2. Skourides got out of the inning without any more damage.
After a shaky two innings, Fisher righted the ship. After a leadoff single and a sacrifice bunt, Fisher put away the next two batters with strikeouts. The Starfires continued to claw back into the game in the bottom of the third. UConn Avery Point sophomore Logan Charbaneau led off the inning with a walk, and with one out, University of Bridgeport senior Anthony Armenia also drew an out. With two men on, Skourides hit Briggs with a pitch, loading the bases. Next, O’Neil sent a fly ball to Silver Knights center fielder Connor Smith. Charbaneau tagged for home, and despite being beaten to the plate by Smith’s throw, the Starfire was able to get under the tag to make the game 4-3.
Fisher once again shut down the Silver Knights in the top of the fourth. Fisher got Stead to ground out to O’Neil before getting Smith to fly out to center, then struck out Peterson to send the Silver Knights down 1-2-3. With Fisher taking over on the mound and the offense firing, the Starfires seemed primed to cut down the Silver Knights’ lead. After Malcolm Klingler came in to pitch for the Silver Knights in the bottom of the fourth, Louisiana Tech’s Sanders came through, launching the second home run of the day over the left field fence, tying the game 4-4.
However, Fisher found himself in trouble again in the top of the fifth, hitting another two batters to start the inning. After getting Story to hit an infield fly, Kolb hit a groundball to second baseman Fox, who got the out at second, leaving runners on the corners. With two outs, Max Dantoni hit a short chopper to third basemen Barclay, who failed to field the ball for an error, once again bringing another run across unearned, giving the lead back to Nashua, 5-4. Fisher got a groundout to end his day for the Starfires.
The Starfires batters got singles from O’Neil and Briggs in the bottom of the fifth, but failed to score any runs.
Southern Maine’s Thomas Pirog replaced Fisher to start the sixth, and sent the first Nashua batter down on strikes before getting the following two batters to ground out and fly out, respectively. The Starfires once again had some action on the bases in the bottom of the inning, as Klingler was relieved by Sachin Gopal, with Sanders earning a walk, and Howland hitting a single, but the Starfires left the two runners on base after Charbaneau grounded into a 4-6-3 double play.
Pirog started the seventh with two strikeouts before being relieved by Western New England junior and left reliever Sullivan Quirk, who got the next batter to line out to bring up the Starfires batters. Nashua sent out Noah Durham in relief to start the seventh. Barclay worked a walk on Durham to start the inning, before Durham hit Armenia with a pitch to put two men on. Briggs then launched a no-doubt home run to left field, giving the Starfires the lead, 7-5. With no outs, O’Neil grounded out, and J.J Fox walked before Nashua relieved Durham with Bryce McCleland. Bonior hit a groundout, which moved Fox up to second, before Fox continued to third on a wild pitch. Sanders walked and advanced to second on another wild pitch from McCleland. Howland worked another walk, loading the bases. McCleland continued to struggle to throw strikes, walking Charbaneau and forcing a runner across home for Westfield, growing their lead to 8-5.
Now with the lead, the Westfield bullpen continued to be lights out, as American International College senior Zach Ruffing came on in relief to start the eighth. Ruffing got a ground out before striking out Dantoni and Max Forgione swinging to end the inning.
Nathan Rodriguez came on for the Silver Knights in the bottom of the eighth. With one out, Briggs got his fourth hit of the night, hitting a sharp grounder down the left field line for a stand-up double. Briggs was thrown out at home by the third baseman after O’Neil hit a grounder. O’Neil stole second before the inning ended.
Fairleigh Dickinson sophomore Chris Strout came in to get the save in the top of the ninth. After allowing a lead-off single, Strout struck out the next two batters to win the game for the Starfires.
The Starfires pitching staff combined for 11 strikeouts, no walks, and only four hits. The bullpen was responsible for a single hit and seven strikeouts. The Starfires offense had 12 hits and eight walks. Four Starfires batters had multiple hits, and five batters registered RBIs.
Fisher ended the day with 5.0 innings pitched, three hits, four strikeouts, no walks, five hit-by-pitches, and zero earned runs allowed.
Former Starfire-turned-bench-coach Josh Frometa emphasized the Starfires approach at the plate helped lead them to victory over Nashua.
“[Our approach] was to see the ball up, make sure we are swinging at the ball in the zone,” said Frometa, and it wasn’t necessarily about swinging the hardest, but getting our most comfortable and best swing onto pitches in the zone.”
Associate Manager Ben Farber added on to Frometa, saying he wants his players to “not try to be the hero. Don’t try to do too much. We want the batters to do just enough to win the at-bat and pass things off to the next guy. And in order to play that way, you need to trust your teammates. You have to say ‘if I do my part, if I get on, I can trust the guys behind me to drive me in,’ and the way we played today was a very unselfish approach at the plate.”
For Briggs, he also emphasized the importance of the hitting approach that the coaches communicated to the players.
“There was great communication, like between innings, nailing down what we had to do,” said Briggs, “and trusting in our approach, the pitchers did a phenomenal job today executing their plan.”
As for his own performance, Briggs emphasized that it began with a good session of batting practice, working to “be able to trust my bat, keep it simple, and see the ball well.”
Briggs ultimately summed up his big day unselfishly.
“I’m just trying to play for my team,” he said.
As for the pitching, Farber was impressed, despite Nashua being able to score five runs.
“Fisher set the tone. The line score doesn’t tell the story of how good he was today. He ran into some bad luck, but he threw the ball really well. The bullpen was lights out. We played a really good game overall,” said Farber.
Farber pointed out the need to improve the fielding as the season progresses.
“We had three errors. We can’t get in the habit of making that many errors. We have to clean up the defense, but we’ll show up every day and work, and improvement will come in time.”
The Starfires will look to continue their winning ways on Friday night at Bullens Field, as they take on the Norwich Sea Unicorns at 6:30 p.m., with a guest appearance from New England Patriots kicker Andrés Borregales.
