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Nashua Defenders force deciding semifinal game with Upper Valley

By Tom King - Staff Writer | Aug 13, 2020

Telegraph photo by TOM KING Nashua's Luke Korkoulakos slides into third before Upper Valley's Nolan Gantrish can pivot to make the tag during the Defenders' series-tying 9-4 win Wednesday in the NHCBL semis at Elliott Field.

NASHUA – On the first day, the visiting team didn’t defend.

On the second day, the other visiting team didn’t throw strikes.

And thus we have the third and deciding day in the NHCBL semifinals between eighth ranked Nashua, 9-4 winners on Wednesday, and No. 4 Upper Valley. They’ll square off today at 5 p.m. at Lebanon High School to decide one spot in the finals.

The 14-10 Anglers’ problem on Wednesday? A combined 12 walks/hit batsmen at Bishop Guertin’s Elliott Field. That’s not going to help anyone win – except the other team, and in this case, the Defenders. It helped them even the best-of-three series 1-1 after losing the opener in Lebanon Tuesday.

“When anybody has a day like that on the mound, for us or anybody, it’s tough,” Nashua manager Tim Lunn said. “When you’re the one that’s benefiting from it, you’ve got to capitalize.”

“We didn’t have very good pitching tonight,” said Anglers skipper Rob Woodward, who sent five hurlers to the mound and four of them to the showers. “We escaped it the first two innings (thanks to two double plays). And then it just kept going. … That was the biggest thing tonight. They’re a good team, and they’re going to make us pay for all that stuff.”

They did, but it took a few innings to do it. Upper Valley actually led 2-0 with a Kobe Benoit RBI single in the first and Andrew Hadlock’s rope to right in the third off Nashua starter and winner Henri Boudreau. But they didn’t score again until two meaningless runs in the seventh.

Anglers starter Kyle Young and his control issues were gone by the second, but Nashua’s comeback didn’t begin until the third when Will Brooks got the first of his three RBI hits to cut the deficit in half.

But three runs in the fourth and five more in the fifth sent things to today. The one double play the Anglers couldn’t turn cost them, as shortstop Trey Chickering’s wild throw to first in an attempt to complete a tailor made, inning ending double play plated two runs to give Nashua (11-12-1) the lead for good, 3-2. Brooks then doubled in another run off reliever Harper Flint to make it 4-2.

“It was a tough loss yesterday, but I think we felt we were still in the game anyway,” Brooks said. “We had Henri on the mound anyway. We just felt we were ready to go.”

The Defenders then broke things wide open with five in the fifth. Chickering, the fourth Upper Valley pitcher on the day, plunked ninth hitter Zach Rioux with the bases loaded to plate one run.

Dan Trzepacz, who hit that potential rally killing double play ball in the fourth, rocketed a double to right to drive in three. Then Brooks drove in the final Nashua run to make it a 9-2 game.

“We had a lot of chances to do damage early,” Lunn said. “And it took us a little while to do that. It just came down to making some adjustments, putting decent swings on balls, and things kind of opened up a little bit.”

Today for the Defenders it should be Zach Finkelstein, who tossed six and a third impressive innings in Nashua’s quarterfinal win over Concord.

“We have Zach, Varun (reliever Lingadal, who pitched the seventh) can come back, we have Corey (O’Day) as well,” Lunn said. “It’s just a matter of coming ready to go, executing, and doing what we need to do.

“It’s about resiliency. We had a lot more energy today than we did (on Tuesday). So hopefully we can bring it again (today) and come out on the better end.”

Woodward, whose team had nine hits, said he has three possibilities for the Anglers, including Sam Sacerdote and Brendon Walker.

“Oh, it’s gonna be a game,” Woodward, who pitched with the Red Sox from 1985-88, said.

“We’ve got Fink on the mound,” Brooks said. “With him on the bump, we always have a chance, and we’re playing well.”

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