Nashua North's Derek Finlay goes airborne as Bishop Guertin's Max Riordan slides safely into second during the Titans' 8-5 win Monday at Holman Stadium. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – The Nashua High School North baseball team’s baseball season seems to be back on track.

The Titans captured their second straight, topping city rival Bishop Guertin 8-5 on Monday at Holman Stadium.

This win came on the heels of last Thursday’s 10-run win over title contender Londonderry.

“We knew we have a good baseball team here,” Titans coach Zach Harris said. “And we knew the baseball part would come. And we’re there, and now to take that next leap, we’ve got to make sure we put seven innings together every time we come out. And finish teams when we have the opportunity to.”

Yes, at the high school level, there’s always room for improvement. The Titans had jumped out to an 8-0 lead and led 8-1 going into the top of the seventh with Alex Meesig tossing a two-hitter. But Meesig didn’t last the inning as the Cards, despite mired in a slump of their own at 4-9 with five straight defeats, scored four runs and had the tying run at the plate.

“We talked about that in the middle innings,” Harris said. “That’s what good teams do. You look at these top teams in the state, and when they get up on a team early, they put them away. We kind of lost a little energy there, lost a little mojo. And that’s something you’ve got to sustain for seven innings.”

North jumped right away on Cards starter Aiden Meaney for six runs in the first two innings, as Derek Finlay led off with a double, and after two walks, Travis Holbrook and Meesig knocked in runs with hits in the first. And in the second, Ryan Bourgeois had a big triple and Liam Novak a double to chase Meaney with the score 6-0. Jimmy Reel’s RBI single plated two in the third and the Titans were soaring with an 8-0 lead.

“Senior on the mound to start the game, we go down 2-0 in multiple counts, they square up a couple of pitches,” Cards coach Scott Painter said. “We don’t take advantage of those same opportunities.

“You’ve got to catch the ball when it’s hit in the air. We’ve preached that to the kids. You give extra outs, they showed it today, very next pitch, they double.”

Guertin did take advantage of that in the final inning, when a misplayed ball in left led to a leadoff triple for Hayden Shattuck. The Cards parlayed that into their four run inning, taking advantage of an error, passed ball, and big hits by Kam Thibault and Alex Lambalet. But reliever Reel escaped further trouble and North is now 6-7.

Meesig is developing into one of the better pitchers in Division I as a senior.

“No question,” Harris said. “He did a really good job for the better part of this game and attacked this (Guertin) lineup. It’s a good lineup, you’ve got pretty much two of the top hitters in the state at the top of this lineup (in Thibault, Jake Mitchell, and also Kyle Lavigne).”

Now the teams come back and face each other again on Wednesday afternoon, the back-to-backs not always easy

“It’s really hard,” Harris said. “Especially when our kids know their kids, and vice-versa. These guys have played each other so many times, so now when they get another opportunity – it’s hard to beat a team twice in a season, let alone twice in a week. … They’re (the Cards) going to come, fight, and play good baseball.”