Telegraph photo by TOM KING Nashua's Zach Finkelstein is looking forward to most likely pitch in his hometown for one final summer, a chance he didn't expect a few weeks ago.

NASHUA – Score one for second chances.

Zach Finkelstein remembers when he walked off the mound in despair at Holy Cross College’s Hanover Insurance Park at Fitton Field on a steamy weekday afternoon last August.

He figured he had thrown his last pitch for the local summer team he had played the better part of five years for, the Nashua American Senior Legion team.

In fact, that looked like it would be the McGill University sophomore pitcher’s last appearance competing for any team in his hometown.

“Honestly didn’t think I would ever play baseball with some of the same guys on the same team,” Finkelstein said. “I didn’t expect to play baseball in Nashua this summer.”

Guess again. If all goes well, Finkelstein will be pitching and playing first base in late June or early July for the Nashua entry in the newly created New Hampshire Covid Baseball League. It’s the replacement for Senior Legion with some of the same rules that that Coffey Post/Nashua Legion manager Tim Lunn is forming. If all comes to fruition, Finkelstein will get that chance to play at home.

Under Senior Legion rules, he wouldn’t have been eligible even in a normal, non-pandemic setting with two college seasons under his belt to play for Coffey Post. But when the season was cancelled to the pandemic, and Lunn moved to organize a 19U league, Finkelstein, younger than most college players who are about to be juniors, can play locally for what would likely be one final time.

“With the flexibility we have and the rules, it gives us a chance to bring him back,” Lunn said. “And it gives him a chance to play locally again.”

Otherwise Finkelstein, who was going to be working in Boston for the summer, was set to play in the Boston Park League. But both the job and the BPL season fell through thanks to the pandemic.

He benefits from playing in the summer the most as it leads right into his McGill season, as baseball is a fall collegiate sport in Canada.

“I was going to get one night a week to throw and stay in shape for my college season,” said Finkelstein, who was on McGill’s Canadian national championship team as a freshman, said. “Obviously for a lot of reasons that were going on in the world, my internship opportunity in Boston got cancelled so I’m no longer going to be living down there. It was really cool they were able to put the opportunity (in the NHCBL) together.”

Lunn is glad to have him if all works out.

“He’s a great kid that means a lot to the program,” Lunn said of Finkelstein. “He’s a kid who knows what we’re about. He’s been around here, he knows what I’m about, what the program is about, and he brings some leadership with a level head.”

At McGill last season, Finkelstein on the mound went 3-2, 3.44 in 10 appearances, eight of them starts, with 36 strikeouts in 36.2 innings.

“I obviously stayed in touch with Tim, and I told him if anything was happening, I was back in Nashua, and I’d love to play,” Finkelstein said. “And when I got a text from him, I was kind of surprised that everything was going to be happening (with the potential of local baseball) with what’s going on in the world.

“But I’m excited that it is happening. Obviously we’ll take precautions and be as safe as possible. But it will be really good to get back on the baseball field, especially for a lot of those guys (in high school) that didn’t get to have their spring season.”

Now the question is, will Finkelstein have a fall season at McGill to compete in? Like just about every walk of life, it’s up in the air.

“We don’t really know what’s going to be happening,” he said. “My school has already decided we’re going to be on line in the fall, at least the majority of classes. They haven’t been totally clear on that yet. Things change so fast that they can’t have a clear plan yet.

“But that’s the situation we’re in. We haven’t heard anything about athletics, but hopefully we’ll be hearing something soon. Hopefully they’ll be able to figure out something. Similar to the situation here in Nashua, it’s not going to be the same as it was last year, it’s going to be different. But hopefully they’ll be able to figure out something so I can play back up at school.”

Finkelstein has been trying to stay in shape, throwing a ball around with a friend or two on any empty field in Nashua, but he’s looking forward to getting back to regular workouts.

After his baseball prospects dimmed, suddenly it feels like things are breaking Finkelstein’s – and local baseball’s – way.

“It definitely does,” Finkelstein said, “and I’m definitely be pretty fortunate to be in this situation.

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