Nashua South shortstop Albert De La Rosa fields a throw while hopng to tag out Bishop Guertin's Kam Thibault during Friday night's game at Holman Stadium. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – Nashua High School South baseball coach James Gaj always says a high school game usually comes down to who makes the fewest mistakes.

On Friday night, he was dead on.

The Panthers took advantage of five Bishop Guertin errors – mainly dropped fly balls – en route to a come-from-behind 6-5 win at Holman Stadium, snapping a three-game losing streak in what was a four-game week.

“That is correct,” Gaj said, his team now 8-5 while BG fell to 8-7. “That is a tough night sky, especially playing here. … That’s a good baseball team over there.”

And the Cards were playing that way, with starter Dom Monico dealing and them jumping on South ace Nolan Mederos for three first inning runs on Luke Anderson’s RBI triple, Evan Kaplo’s RBI single and a Matt Riordan sac fly.

The Panthers did come back against Monico in the bottom of the first, thanks to Isaiah Hedquist’s RBI single and BG’s first error of the game.

But Monico had settled down, the Cards added Brandon Metevier’s RBI double in the fourth and it was 4-2 going into the bottom of the fifth.

Then it all changed.

First came a dropped fly ball in center and another in right that made it 4-3. Reliever Cooper Granville relieved Monico (seven K’s in 4.1 innings) and got out of further trouble.

But things got worse for BG defensively in the sixth with two out and nobody on. This time a mental mistake, as the Cards were slow to get the ball in on a single by Albert De La Rosa, who went to third on a wild pitch and scored on River Hart’s infield hit to tie the game at 4.

“We’re in no doubles defense there, we don’t come get the ball, we’re lackadaisical with it, and it cost us,” Painter said.

And there was more cost involved. A walk to Hedquist, and enter Cards reliever Jake Boudreau, with runners at the corners. During Boudreau’s warmup, Gaj, Hart and Hedquist were going over strategy with the double steal in play. You knew something was up.

“We knew as soon as we saw Boudreau come in, we had an approach, we knew he threw gas and we’re ready for him,” Gaj said. “We said if we got to two strikes we’d run that pickoff play. … Luckily it came in our favor.”

Boudreau had hitter Dean Adams off stride but opted to try to pick Hart off third when Hedquist broke for second. The throw home beat Hart but Riordan couldn’t hold the ball for another error and the go-ahead run scored. Then an error by Anderson at short made it 6-4.

“Just a lack of focus,” Painter said. “Our pitchers our fantastic, we’re a sub-2 ERA team. When the chips are down, the pressure gets to us, and for some reason we fold. They need to look in the mirror, come ready to go on Sunday, come ready for practice, and we’ll right the ship. We’ve got five games to go.

“Got to make a play. If we make one play, that game’s a different game.”

It almost became a different game with infielder Hunter Ward’s two-out error in the top of the seventh that led to a Kaplo RBI double (third hit of the game). But Shaw retired Riordan on a comebacker to end the game.

“We teach our baserunners to be aggressive,” Gaj said. “That’s exactly what we want. You notice on that pickoff play Hedquist was at third base. … Our mantra is put the ball in play. You put the ball in play, good things will happen.”

And South needed a good thing at the end of a tough week.

“This was huge,” Gaj said. “We were on a three-game skid. … We’ve been looking for that elusive win. Eight wins will probably get you a tournament bid, that’s what we were happy about today.”

CORRECTION

An earlier version of this story incorrectly charged Metevier with two outfield mistakes, but The Telegraph has learned he was removed from the defensive alignment before the fifth inning. Our apologies; those changes are normally not relayed up to the press box during the game.

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