Spinners Rally on Veterans Night to Top Nashua 10-8

LOWELL, Mass. On a night the Lowell Spinners dedicated to honor those who served, on the eve of the Fourth of July, the home team gave LeLacheur Park a finish worthy of the occasion, rallying past the Nashua Silver Knights 10-8 on Friday. The Spinners trailed by two in the seventh inning before erupting for four runs to seize a lead they would hold onto.

Righthander Jake Zawatsky set an early tone, working five efficient innings and allowing just two runs on three hits with three strikeouts. Nashua struck first in the third when Phoenix Williams lined an RBI single to bring home Mason Wilson, but Lowell answered in the bottom of the fourth. David Vanderzouwen tied the game with an RBI single, hustling to second on the throw as Esteban Dessureault scored, and catcher Fletcher Waterman followed with a two-run single to center that plated Vanderzouwen and Jordan Henriquez for a 3-1 lead.

Lowell added single runs in the fifth and sixth, on a Quinn Murphy sacrifice fly and a Jack Quigley RBI single, to build a 5-2 cushion. Then came the seventh. Nashua sent ten men to the plate and scored five, taking a 7-5 lead on Williams' two-run double, a two-run single by Hunter Troiano, and an unearned run.

The Spinners were unfazed. In the bottom of the seventh, Henriquez singled home a run, Vanderzouwen delivered his second RBI single to tie the game at 7-7, and Zander Bratspis drove in the go-ahead run. Vanderzouwen then came around to score on a Waterman steal of second, and Lowell tacked on another in the eighth on a wild pitch for a 10-7 lead. Nashua managed a run in the ninth, but closer Anthony Mateo slammed the door for his third save.

The comeback did not rattle the man in the dugout. "When we came off the field, the guys got themselves together," manager Kevin Graber said of the response to Nashua's five-run seventh. "It was, let's string some good at-bats together, let's pass the baton, let's get some guys on base and get going. I felt pretty good about our response to a little bit of adversity."

Vanderzouwen was the standout for Lowell, finishing 2-for-5 with two RBI and two runs while coming through in both the fourth-inning surge and the seventh-inning comeback. Dessureault reached base in three of four trips and scored twice, Cam Biller collected three hits, and Waterman drove in two. Graber pointed to a formula that has started to define the club. "A big advantage for us was we got good pitching on the front end and the back end, and we ran the bases pretty well," he said. "We scored some runs without having to do much other than fly around out there. There's nothing wrong with that."

Josh Bryant earned the win with a scoreless inning of relief, and Graber admitted he thought about sending him back out. "That eighth inning he threw was so good," Graber said. "But we've got a day off tomorrow, and we really wanted to get Anthony Mateo out there to slam the door." Mateo retired the side for his third save, and he has become a steadying force at the back end. "He's been nails," Graber said. "We've got a young team, and he's a veteran presence. He's played big-time baseball against big-time opponents, and he wants the ball. You know he's going to throw strikes."

A Night to Honor Those Who Served

But the box score was only part of the story. Before first pitch, the Spinners turned LeLacheur Park over to the veterans in the building. Donnie Jarvis of the Lowell Vet Center, who also serves as Director of Veterans Services for the Town of Billerica, addressed the crowd. The most solemn moment came with the permanent dedication of a POW/MIA chair in Section 116, followed by a moment of silence. Tributes carried into the seventh-inning stretch, when the club recognized veterans and first responders alongside the Hidden Battle Foundation.

For a Spinners club that entered the night at 11-21, a holiday-eve comeback win in front of a grateful crowd was a fitting way to close things out. Graber, for his part, is keeping the view simple even as his team climbs. "I don't really look at the standings, to be honest," he said. "You take care of the little things and the big things take care of themselves. You just focus on the day to day and get these guys ready to play." His metaphor for a young team trending upward:

"We're sort of like an airplane achieving altitude."

Written by Andre Vlahakis