Nashua North's Liam Novak, center, gets mobbed by his teammates after he beat out a ground ball at first for a 5-4 North victory in the bottom of the seventh at Holman Stadium. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – These final games have some special meaning for Nashua North first baseman Liam Novak.

He was making plans to play baseball in college, and then he got an offer for an ROTC scholarship from Notre Dame University.

Easy decision, so that means an event like Monday’s ground ball off his bat to give the Titans a stunning 5-4 comeback win over rival Nashua South at Holman Stadium meant that much more. Not many of those left.

“It wasn’t the best hit, but it worked,” Novak said, who also drove in two runs with a double earlier. “They’re (the games) awesome, especially after not playing last year. We’ve got to work, but I feel like we’ve got something.”

The loss had to be crushing for the Panthers (3-12), who lost to Merrimack here on Friday after losing a 6-2 lead in the seventh. This time they led 4-3 going into the bottom of the seventh. But a fly ball lost in the sun meant a triple for Alex Meesig, and he strolled home thanks to a Hunter Ward balk.

But then Ward had control issues, walking Derek Finlay, Jimmy Reel, and then Ryan Bourgeois intentionally.

Enter Novak, who hit a sharp ground ball to Panther shortstop River Hart, who looked to get what should have been an easy, inning-ending force at third. However, no one was covering the bag, and Hart quickly shifted and fired to first but high and Novak looked like he had beat it out anyway.

“Our biggest problem all year has been figuring out how to close, and it bit us in the butt again,” Panthers coach James Gaj said. “It just bit us again. Youthful things do things like that.

“The excitement of the last inning, we’re trying to teach guys what to do in certain scenarios, that’s why we have this young squad out here. We want to play in these close games. These are scrimmages (with the open tourney), so I don’t have a problem throwing young kids in there to learn how to play the game.”

And Titans coach Zach Harris told his 7-8 team they could learn something, too.

“I told the guys I’d rather win ugly than lose pretty, so that’s exactly what happened today,” Harris said. “We did what we had to do I guess at the end of the game, and grinded this one out.”

Harris felt his team had to be stronger in the middle innings, as they tied things at 2 on Novak’s double in the second and scratched out a go-ahead run in the third. But South took their 4-3 lead on a Leo Kopiko bunt and Adam Picard RBI hit, in top of the fourth, and the Panthers were up.

“He (Gaj) has done a good job with this young group, they’re playing some good baseball at the right time, they’re going to compete,” Harris said.

But so will Novak, who hustled down the line and hoped for the best to make a winner out of reliever Corey O’Day.

“Absolutely,” Harris said. “He’s just a hard-working kid, he wouldn’t have done anything else in that situation.”

The two teams tangle again at Holman on Wednesday at 7 p.m. to close out the regular season. It will get tougher for the Panthers, as North ace Meesig will take the mound.

“You learn by failure,” Gaj said. “Failure’s the best teacher, and that’s the way we’re learning this year. It’s tough.”