Kosey Tanaka, second from top left, celebrates his walk-off hit with his Nashua South teammates after Monday's season-opening, nine inning 7-6 win over Goffstown at Holman Stadium. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – A few days ago – some 72 hours, to be exact – Holman Stadium was covered with snow, and the infield looked like a quagmire.

Fast forward to Monday, with the grass looking as green as ever, the infield dry, and baseball was being played.

Now, Nashua High School South was down 4-0 to Goffstown, and it looked like no way the Panthers were going to be in this one.

Sense a pattern here?

Lo and behold, South’s Leo Depaulo boomed a solo homer in the bottom of the seventh, and Kosey Tanaka smacked a walk off RBI single in the bottom of the ninth and the Panthers came away with an extra-inning 7-6 win. On a day they really didn’t even think they’d play.

“I had hope, but I didn’t think we’d play,” Kotsey said. “Thank god we played.”

And thank the city of Nashua that got the place ready to play for a team that rallied twice.

“It shows resiliency,” Panthers coach James Gaj said of his team. “For a young team, when you can be gritty, play a game like that and win a game like that, it shows grit, it shows resiliency, and that’s what we’ve been preaching.”

As much as South looked like it would fold early as the Grizzlies took advantage of four runs off hard throwing starter Grant McCubrey thanks to four walks, the Panthers had chances in the seventh and eighth to win it.

After Depaulo’s leadoff homer in the seventh, an error and a single put the winning run at third but Kotsey grounded out to second. McCubrey tripled with two out in the eighth but was stranded.

Down 4-0 in the first, the Panthers first comeback came as they responded with four of their own off Goffstown starter Noah Durham to tie it on a throwing error and RBI hits by Depaulo and Chase O’Brien. Down 6-4 in the fifth they literally squeezed out a run on an O’Brien squeeze bunt. They left the bases loaded,however, to end the threat.

Meanwhile, South’s bullpen of Brendan Doughty (four innings), Mason Joshi (three) and Depaulo (one for the win) did the job, holding Goffstown to just those two runs after the first.

“Our bullpen tonight kept us in this game,” said Gaj, whose team doesn’t play again until Saturday so he had some arm flexibility.

Reliever Brendan Doughty delivers a pitch for Nashua South during Monday’s season opener vs. Goffstown at Holman Stadium. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

And it paid off when Depaulo blasted the long ball to tie it.

“I got a fastball, and I saw it off the bat, I knew it was gone,” Depaulo said. “It was exciting. I just got my pitch and turned on it.”

“You know, the crazy thing about that is he did it in a scrimmage,” Gaj said. “Same thing with two strikes. Kids a gamer, a multi-sport athlete.”

And then Kosey, who started last year in center field as a sophomore, took advantage of the fact Gus Smiley reached on a walk just after Logan Fier got picked off at first. Smiley, nearly met the same fate, then stole second.

“I was just waiting for something I could handle,” Kosey said. “He grooved me a fastball and I just went with it. I knew Gus was going to do his job and take the base. All I had to do was my part. Great team win for us.”

And also for, well, the city Park-Rec Department the man who runs Holman, Scott Painter.

“I don’t think anybody thought we were going to play,” Gaj said with a grin. “Got to hand it to Scott Painter. He got it ready. We wanted to play today. Too beautiful of a day not to.”

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