The Nashua Coffey Post Junior Legion team celebrates its state title win over Exeter on Tuesday night at Manchester's Gill Stadium. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

MANCHESTER – They were expected to win, and they did.

That’s because the real Nashua Coffey Post 3 Junior American Legion team stood up just in time this past Tuesday night.

Nashua went into the state tournament’s final day needing to win one out of two games vs. Exeter. After a lackluster 8-2 losing performance in its first crack at closing out Exeter for a state title at Gill Stadium, the Coffey Kids bounced back in a big way in the second game for a 15-2, five-inning win and the second Junior crown for the program, their first since 2013.

“We just told them to play loose,” Nashua manager Jeff Lunn said. “It felt like in the first game they were playing too tight, trying to be too perfect, not trusting what we did all season.

“So we reiterated after the game, play loose, be together, and we should be able to come out on top.”

As a result, Nashua is currently competing this weekend in the Northeast Regional Tournament in West Haverstraw, N.Y. That’s the final stop for the Junior level, as there is no Legion World Series like there is for the Seniors.

This was a Nashua team that could draw from four high schools – Nashua North and South, Bishop Guertin, and Hollis Brookline, and was expected to contend for a title thanks to the work of Jeff’s brother, Tim, who managed things off the field in picking the players.

“Tim did a great job building this team,” Jeff Lunn said. “He built it from the ground up. I mean, top to bottom we didn’t really have any holes.”

The second game was more like the Coffey Post team that was a bit older than many of its opponents, dominating in-state teams all season to a 15-1 District A record and the one that had outscored the opposition 34-8 in three tourney games before yesterday’s early game hiccup.

Trailing 2-0 after two, Nashua took advantage of Exeter’s limited pitching to score a whopping 13 runs in the third inning of the nightcap on five hits, seven Exeter walks, two errors, and a wild pitch. And that was that after sending 16 to the plate.

The key bat blows were RBI singles by Dom Monico and Jake O’Connor, while Matt Riordan, Zak Lussier, and Isaiah Hedquist drew bases loaded walks, as Exeter needed three pitchers to get through the frame, none with much velocity and all fairly younger on average than their opponents.

But Lunn said the team prepared for that kind of pitching.

“Today we had a little batting practice, one fast round, one slow round,” Lunn said. “Told them to stay back on the back leg, don’t get on the front foot, just keep your weight back and let the ball travel to you.”

And if it traveled outside the strike zone, keep the bat on the shoulders. Exeter had all the momentum early, as the pitcher who closed out Exeter’s win with an inning of relief, Evan Tanner, tossed two shutout innings to start the nightcap. But he made a critical throwing error on a bunt by Luke Anderson, plating the first Nashua run and then walked the next two hitters he faced.

“Our pitching wasn’t throwing strikes,” Exeter manager Wayne Young said. “He’s one of our youngest kids, he’s 14, he pitched 40-something (pitches) a couple of nights ago and just ran out of gas. The relief pitching didn’t end up throwing strikes, and that game got out of hand very quickly.”

Perhaps that was what Nashua was hoping for in the first game, but the Coffey bats were silenced by the six innings of work by Exeter hurler Cameron Keaveney, who will be a sophomore at Exeter High School in the fall. Keaveney checked Nashua on six hits (RBI singles by Riordan and Jordan Joyal).

In that game, Exeter got a first inning RBI triple by Dan Blankenship and two RBI doubles by Rex Sullivan. Coffey starter Monico didn’t quite have it, giving up five runs over three innings.

Ah, but that was not the case for Game 2 Nashua starter Elias Bourque. Sure, Exeter roughed him up for two runs in the first on three hits, a run-scoring infield single by Reger Davis and sac fly by Jakob Schwarz. But that was it, as he settled down to allow only three hits in the next four innings, striking out five.

“I was a little disappointed after they got the two runs, but I knew eventually we’d start hitting, and I just needed to keep us in it for the couple innings I needed to,” Bourque, who will be a junior at Nashua North, said. “And once we got all those runs, I just needed to throw strikes and we had it pretty much wrapped up.

“I knew we’d get going, and I just had to do my job while everyone else did theirs.”

A job well done, worthy of state champions.

“We had a lot of guys who could fill roles, a lot of pitching, a lot of guys who could just play wherever,” Jeff Lunn said. “That’s what we need for a championship team.”