Bishop Guertin third baseman Josh Wilson looks to make a play after tagging out Nashua North's Dawson Bolton during Friday night's game at Holman Stadium. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – There’s one constant that the Bishop Guertin High School baseball team has enjoyed during it’s 3-2 start on the young season:

Offense.

The Cardinals have scored their share of runs, 41 in five games, including Friday night’s 8-3 win over city rival Nashua North at Holman Stadium.

“It’s something we haven’t done over the last couple of years, since our 2019 team, is hit that well,” Guertin coach Scott Painter said. “There’s some good things we’ll take away from it, but we’ve got to have our pitchers bear down a little bit. It’s early, but we’ve got to throw strikes.”

Guertin’s 11 hits offset a tough night for its pitching as the Cards’ arms walked a whopping 11 Titans and plunked five batters. That’s 16 free passes, but the flip side of that is the slumping 1-5 Titans couldn’t take advantage of it because offensively they managed just one hit. And that was of the infield variety, a close play at first with Dawson Bolton beating out a grounder in the second inning, two frames before the Titans scored two runs to take a 2-1 lead. Their other came on a bases loaded walk in the seventh.

“That’s kind of been the story for us,” Harris said. “We have to do a better job of making those fundamental plays, mentally knowing the game, and where the ball’s going situationally.

“And hopefully our bats will come alive a little bit. … And we’ll start to get some leeway when it comes to pitching and defense. But we’ve got to be better in all areas.”

It looked halfway through it would be a classic, as Guertin took a 1-0 lead off Titan lefty starter Eric McInnis when Liam Ireland led off with a single, stole second and scored on Tyler Parks RBI single. But North got its two runs in the fourth without the benefit of a hit thanks to a safety squeeze by James Markley and a wild pitch in an inning in which the Cards walked three and plunked two, leading to the exit of starter Logan Kosko.

But BG’s bats came alive in the sixth, as they scored three to take a 4-2 lead on RBI hits by Ben Geiger, Ethan Drouin and Jordan Delude. They broke it open in the seventh with four more, starting with a Gavin Santos triple and wild pitch, then a Delude RBI ground out and two-run single by Ireland off North reliever Ryan Garon.

“The lefty (McInnis) kept us off-balance a little bit, our guys knew it,” Painter said. “I think we got to their pen. It’s the end of the week, they played three, we’ve played three.”

And that is it for the week for North and it may be for BG. Holman was supposed to host a tripleheader today, staring with Nashua South vs. Pinkerton at 10 a.m., then North-Salem at 1 p.m. and BG-Dover at 7. The dire damp forecast has wiped out the first two and the night game is doubtful, but still on the schedule as of last night.

“It’s always a good battle between us two,” North coach Zach Harris said of his team and the Cards. “They’re doing a really good job over there, all the credit to them for staying in it and finishing us off.”