Telegraph photo by TOM KING Nashua's Kam Thibault steals third just ahead of the diving tag by Dover third baseman John Luchsinger during the Defenders' 12-4 win Monday at Elliott Field.

NASHUA – The Nashua Defenders of the New Hampshire COVID Baseball League need to work on one thing.

You’re not supposed to have a better Monday than your weekend.

But that’s exactly what the Defenders experienced, thanks to a 12-4 win over Dover yesterday after back-to-back losses Saturday and Sunday in which they were outscored by a combined 20-7.

“These last couple of games we’ve been hitting shots right at kids, but it’s been our defense that’s been letting us down,” Nashua slugger Dan Trezpacz said after going 3 for 4 with two triples and four RBIs to lead a 13-hit attack. “But we were spot on after our first error in the first inning. We were definitely fired up.”

Nashua’s defensive woes en route to a 1-3 start (allowing 28 runs in those three losses) suddenly became a thing of the past. They had just two miscues on Monday, and this looked more like the team manager Tim Lunn expected.

“Like I told the guys, we hadn’t played our best baseball yet,” Lunn said. “At some point, we had to just break through.”

A now 0-4 Dover team was the one to do it against, although the Green Toppers were tough early. Trezpacz tripled in two and Will Brooks singled in another as part of a three-run first, but Dover, which had an early 1-0 lead, clawed to within 3-2 in the third on the first of two Axel Post RBI hits.

Still, Nashua starter and winner Henri Boudreau, despite allowing three runs on seven hits over five innings, was in charge. So was Lunn, who read his team a bit of the riot act and the Defenders responded with three in the fourth. Isaac Zhang hit a two-run single and they scored on a wild pitch, knocking Dover starter Brady Mourgenos out of the game.

Zhang went 3 for 3 with three RBIs in the nine hole, and Kam Thibault went 3 for 3. Nashua (2-3) broke the game open with six in the sixth on five hits, four of them on infield bounces off the hard, dry Elliott dirt, plus another Trezpacz two-run triple.

“He’s swinging it really well right now,” Lunn said of the former Souhegan standout. “He’s seeing the ball well. … He’s going to be really big in the middle of the lineup.”

“We know it’s a good team, Nashua’s always had a good program,” Dover coach Jack Dalton said. “State championship last year, I know it’s not Legion this year but it’s generally the same kids.

“We’re just trying to build a different program over here, trying to set a different atmosphere. We’re patient, we’re young.”

But after a 1-3 start, Nashua’s patience was running thin. The Defenders got good pitching, decent defense, and the bats came alive.

“If everybody can keep doing what they’re doing, it’s going to help us,” Lunn said. “We’re a way better team than what we showed in the first four games. This is more of what we’re capable of.”

Who said Mondays have to be bad?

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Actually, it was a bad Monday for another local NHCBL team as Merrimack fell 9-0 to Concord in a battle of unbeatens. And one of the team’s best players, Cody Pfeifer, will be out with a broken hand after being hit by a pitch.

Concord is now 5-0, while Merrimack fell to 3-1.

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