HolmanStadium was filled with young students from area schools which made for a festie Nashua Silver Knights season opener on Wednesday. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – Anyone who pulled into the Holman Stadium lot Wednesday morning could hear it right away.

The sound of young kids screaming.

And why shouldn’t they? They were at a ballpark instead of the classroom on a beautiful late spring/early summer morning.

It was the Nashua Silver Knights’ way of starting their 15th season, as they drew an announced 2,606 fans for the first of two of their Education Day games that serves as a field trip for local schools. The only thing that went wrong was the fact they lost the game 9-7, committing five errors for seven unearned runs.

Still, the atmosphere was electric.

“It was wonderful,” Knights owner John Creedon, Jr.said after he spent the morning working all areas of the park. “Beautiful day weather-wise, everybody here, we didn’t put up the ‘W’ but I think everybody still had a wonderful time. It beat being in school for the day for all those kids and teachers.”

It’s the first of 32 home dates from now through early August. In fact, the Silver Knights will have another Education Day game on Tuesday, June 3, and that’s already sold out.

“We’re super excited that the season’s kicked off here and kicked off in style,” Creedon said. “Our new staff is getting our legs underneath us working out the operational kinks.”

While the stands were filled with kids, the suites had some season ticket holders as well as senior citizen/assisted living groups. And players interacted with the kids in the stands.

“It was great,” first-year Silver Knights manager Nick Guarino said. “Guys were awesome with the fans, signing autographs pretty much the whole day. The kids were obviously loud, screaming and yelling. It was a good atmosphere, was fun.”

Guarino remembered his first year with the team in 2020, the so-called “COVID” year, when things weren’t quite as festive with restricted crowds.

“This was definitely different,” he said. “But the year after I was here, the fans were loud. The guys embraced it and did a good job with that stuff.

“It’s going to be a fun summer.”