Telegraph photo by TOM KING The Nashua Defenders avoided having their season end in a cloud of dust on Saturday with a quarterfinal series over the Concord Cannons, despite Owen Kellington's successful steal of second as the ball skipped up on Nashua's Zach Rioux at Elliott Field. The Defenders face Upper Valley in Lebanon today in Game 1 of the semis.

NASHUA – The Nashua Defenders faced the pitching cream of the crop in their New Hampshire COVID Baseball League (NHCBL) quarterfinal series sweep of the Concord Cannons – and survived.

Can their offense now turn it up a notch in the semifinals against the No. 4 Upper Valley Anglers?

Nashua’s pitchers, and its much-maligned defense, could use just that.

“Against a team like (Concord), with solid pitching, we had some pretty good at-bats,” Nashua manager Tim Lunn said. “We just have to continue with that approach. If we can swing the bats like we did against (the Cannons) against the next couple of teams if we continue to move, I think we’ll be OK.

“But I think we have to put up a couple of more runs and give our pitchers a little more breathing room if possible.”

The series opens today at 5:30 p.m. in Lebanon, with Game 2 set to be at Bishop Guertin’s Elliott Field Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. If a Game 3 is necessary, it will be Thursday in Lebanon, also at 5:30.

Scheduled to take the mound today for N o. 8, 10-11-1 Nashua will be Brandon Hsu, younger brother of Nashua catcher/DH Kyle Hsu. The younger Hsu joined the Defenders, who only used three pitchers in the first series, a couple of weeks ago. Nashua’s top two starters, Henri Boudreau (complete game) and Zach Finkelstein (into the seventh) went deep in their quarterfinal games and top reliever Varun Lingadal threw 3 2/3 innings of relief in Saturday’s win.

“We had lost a couple of kids so we were able to take (Hsu),” Lunn said. “He’s probably going Game 1, which will give Henri and Zach time to come back.

“We only used three pitchers (in the Concord series). We really didn’t go deep into our bullpen, besides Varun … We have the pitching.”

Nashua lost both games to Upper Valley (13-9), both by 7-4 tallies. The Anglers used top starters Kyle Young and Brendan Walker in its quarterfinal series sweep of the New Hampshire Prospects. They also have a top weapon out of the bullpen in Sam Sacerdote, who threw six innings of shutout relief in their sweep of the Prospects and local stars Chris Keefe (Nashua South) and Alex Messig (Nashua North). Perhaps Young tossing just one inning the other night gives him a chance to start today.

“They play good fundamental baseball, and we made a lot of mistakes in our games against them,” Lunn said. “Again, if we play clean baseball, I think we’ll be competitive. And I like our pitching against anybody. Our pitching has been nails all year. If we can do that, we’ll be OK.”

Again, it a lot will rely on the defense. The Anglers play a lot of small ball, taking the extra base, forcing the issue on the base paths. They’ll force Nashua to make plays defensively, for certain.

“They’re a scrappy team as always,” Lunn said. “They play small ball, run the bases hard, play defense. It’s going to be a fun series and we’ll see what happens.”