Following an excellent multi-sport career at Londonderry High School, 2014 LHS graduate Brett Evangelista moved on to still more athletic success on the baseball team at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. And the former Lancer hardball and ice hockey star has also spent the last two summers playing baseball for the Nashua Silver Knights of the Futures Collegiate Baseball League (FCBL)Â of New England.
Evangelista has helped the Blue Knights get all the way into the FCBL championship series against the Worcester (Mass.) Bravehearts this summer with his contributions in 29 contests as an outfielder for manager B.J. Neverett’s Gate City crew.
The ex-Lancer knocked 13 hits and scored 13 runs for the Blue Knights, smacking two home runs and a double, driving in five runs and stealing three bases.
Evangelista thumped his home runs in two different contests, a 12-8 defeat of the Seacoast Mavericks on July 24 and a 13-3 walloping of the Wachusett Dirt Dogs on Aug. 3.
The former LHS baseball and hockey all-stater and his Silver Knight teammates claimed the third seed in their Eastern Division by defeating the Worcester squad by an 8-0 tally on July 29. From there the Nashuans bested the Torrington, Conn., entry by a 6-2 score in round one, and took the second and third games of a best-of-three semifinal-round series against the Seacoast Mavericks last week to advance to the finals.
After dropping a 4-2 decision to that Portsmouth-based opponent last Monday, Aug. 8, Evangelista and the Knights rebounded for wins of 12-5 the next night and 10-9 Wednesday evening, Aug. 10 to take the series and bound into the championship round against Worcester.
Evangelista enjoyed a strong sophomore baseball campaign for the U-Mass baseball squad this past spring, serving as the team’s starting second baseman and playing in 38 contests.
The LHS grad batted .252 with a .298 slugging percentage, .373 on-base percentage, six doubles, 10 runs batted in, and a home run for the Minutemen.
Evangelista’s role increased considerably with the U-Mass contingent during the 2016 campaign after he appeared in 18 games with three runs batted in during the 2015 campaign.
One of Evangelista’s U-Mass teammates each of the last two years has been former fellow Londonderry High Lancer star and pitcher Ryan Moloney. The talented junior righty – who also played with Evangelista on the 2015 Silver Lightning contingent last summer – went 4-4 with a 4.52 earned run average in 10 games for the 2015 Minutemen and 2-6 with a strong 3.49 ERA in 11 games for the 2016 U-Mass crew this past spring.
Each franchise in the Futures Collegiate Baseball League of New England is made up of elite collegiate athletes competing in a minor league-style format. The league began its initial year of operations in 2011.
The FCBL plays a 56-game schedule, with 28 home games and 28 away games. The league championship is determined by a playoff immediately after the season, and each year top players are scouted and picked in the Major League draft.