Nashua South's Max Demers, shown earlier in the season, was dominant vs. Portsmouth on Saturday at Holman Stadium. (Telegraph file photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA — On a cool Saturday afternoon at Historic Holman Stadium, the clouds never parted to reveal the sun. The Portsmouth High School bats, just as the sun had no answer for the cloud cover, had no answer for the Nashua South junior Max Demers, who pitched a stellar six shutout innings as the Panthers prevailed, 6-0.

Demers was absolutely dominant with 14 strikeouts as the Panthers took a huge step to attaining their tourney aspirations.

“He threw fantastic, the best I’ve seen him all year,” South coach James Gaj said. “He went out and dominated. They had no answer for him.”

Demers faced off against Portsmouth freshman pitcher Cam Stacey, who faced trouble early on, yielding a couple of hits and a walk for an early one-run deficit. Stacey never found his groove, allowing four runs on five hits, two walks, and a hit batter in four innings pitched.

In the bottom of the fifth inning, Nashua junior Anderson Tolentino obliterated a 1-1 pitch from junior Max Herler, sending the baseball to the left field beer garden.

Nashua senior Jacoby Caissie came on in the top of the seventh to complete the shutout, and Nashua moves to 8-8 on the season. The figuring is that eight wins will normally get you in, and the Panthers were shooting to get there and breathe.

“It takes a lot of the pressure off,” Gaj said. “We’re going into the last week without having a must-win game.”

For the Panthers, Jack Nineteau, Tolentino, Caissie, and Garrett Schmidt contributed with runs batted in, and the aforementioned Jacoby Caissie led the charge with two hits on the day.

Nashua South’s Anderson Tolentino is greeted at home plate by teammates Jack Ninteau (3) and Jacoby Caissie during Saturday’s DivisionI game vs. Portsmouth at Holman Stadium. (Photo by Alex Posani)

For 5-11 Portsmouth, junior catcher Hugh Herter was the only batter to have any answer to Demers, drawing a base on balls to lead off the game, reaching via a hit by pitch, and finding a hole for a single in the 6th inning.

The Panthers have three games remaining in the regular season, with the next coming on Tuesday at Londonderry. They close things out with two home games, the penultimate being against Winnacunnet at 4:30 p.m. next Thursday and the season finale against Manchester Central-Manchester West at 6 p.m. next Friday, May 29.