Nashua North's Derek Finlay drops down a sacrifice bunt in front of South catcher Caleb Rich during Friday night's Battle of the Bridge at Holman Stadium. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – Friday night we got to see The Full Finlay at Holman Stadium.

For Nashua High School North senior shortstop Derek Finlay, it was a long time coming – and possibly worth the wait.

He had been out of most athletc action since getting injured in a football playoff game last November. He couldn’t play basketball this winter and this spring, due to a healing shoulder, the Titans shortstop could throw but wasn’t ready the first month to swing the bat.

Until last night, that is. Finlay went 2 for 3 with a triple, double, sac bunt and a whopping five RBIs on the best stage of all – North’s 8-2 romp over rival Nashua South in front of a good-size Battle of the Bridge crowd.

“It felt great,” Finlay, bound for UAlbany in the fall, said. “You come up in that big spot where everyone wants to come up. Bases loaded, seven o’clock on a Friday night in front of the whole crowd. Just got to deliver man. That’s all it is.”

Oh, he delivered. With the Titans nursing a 2-0 lead and the bases juiced against South starting pitcher Jake O’Connor, Finlay drove a ball to center that cleared the bases and put him at third with the triple, ripping the game wide open for a 5-0 Titans lead.

North coach Zach Harris had been using Finlay just for defense, using a DH in his spot, saying that whatever the senior could do was worth it.

“I’m happy for him,” Harris said, his team now 6-4. “I know he’s been itching to go fully, especially hitting, and that’s probably what he does best. And we saw that tonight.”

He did it again in the sixth, a bases loaded double off reliever Dean Adams to drive in two runs and make it an 8-0 game.

“Finlay is back and he is one of the best players in the state,” South coach James Gaj said, his 6-4 team’s six game win streak snapped. “And he proved it tonight.”

It seemed to be contagious for the Titans, who pounded out nine hits and took advantage of a couple of Panther miscues on pop ups and fly balls.Joey Deck had of those hits, including an RBI double in the first. His single in the fourth put two on and none out for Finlay to drop a successful sac bunt down, followed by an RBI single by Austin Suchecki to make it 2-0.

Suchecki contributed defensively as well with a two-out diving catch in center on a ball off the bat of Isaiah Hedquist in the first to save a run with Panther Devin Sawyer on second after he led off the bottom of the first with a double.

“Austin makes plays everywhere,” Harris said. “He got a lot of time last year as a freshman, so coming back, being a little more comfortable as a sophomore, he’s done some great stuff defensively.”

The other factor was the Panthers were stymied after that double by North starter and complete game winner Elias Bourque. Until tiring in the seventh, he allowed just one other hit. It mattered little that he lost the shutout on a Grant McCubrey two-run single in the bottom of the seventh, as he fanned eight with no walks and hit a batter. It conjured up memories of his outing in last year’s Battle of the Bridge game, a tough 1-0 loss.

“Two games in a row (regular season vs. South) in which he came out here and pitched his butt off, and really competed,” Harris said. “I’m really happy for him as well.”

Conversely, Gaj may have been tempted to try to start ace lefty Nick Shaw, who did pitch one relief inning (seventh). But any more than that, because Shaw started on Monday, would have put him over the limit.

“We don’t like to burn out arms, even though it’s the big North-South game,” Gaj said. “Friday is the third (game) of the week, we went with the senior, Jake’s our guy. He’s going to Wheaton College, he’s a good pitcher. … They figured him out. North studied him, they knew who they were going against, and did a good job.”

Both teams had problems with the twilight as well as the Holman lights in terms of judging and catching fly balls, and it seemed to impact the Panthers, playing their first night game, more.

“Our kids did a great job capitalizing,” Harris said. “We talk about in baseball, very rarely do you win games. Most of the time you lose them (via mistakes). You kind of play mistake free ball, take advanatge of the other team’s mistakes, and put yourself in a good position to win.”

“They did the little things,” Gaj said. “North wanted this game more. They’re definitely a very underrated team.”

With both teams 6-4, it will be interesting to see where they go from here. Finlay hopes to have a say in that for North.

“Me being in the lineup, (if) I can do what I did today,” he said, “get five RBIs, something like that, I don’t know what it was, but yeah, scratch a couple more across and see what we can do this year.”

FAME AND STANDINGS

Before the game, several of this year’s Nashua Hall of Fame inductees were honored, introduced to the crowd and threw out ceremonial first pitches. The sold out induction ceremony begins Sunday at noon at the Nashua Courtyard Marriott…

South leads the Battle of the Bridge 4-3 after getting a baseball split with a JV win. Things resume Tuesday with girls varsity tennis and varsity softball.

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