Keene's Aiden O'Connell delivers a pitch during Monday night's exhibition game vs. the Nashua Silver Knights at Historic Holman Stadium. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – Let’s make a deal.

That’s what former Nashua Silver Knight Aiden O’Connell and his Keene Swamp Bats manager Shaun McKenna did prior to the Granite State Showdown exhibition earlier this week with the Nashua Silver Knights at Historic Holman Stadium.

Bedford’s O’Connell, just back from a vacation, struck a deal where if he pitched, he could also hit.

It turned out to be a win-win, because not only did O’Connell toss five innings of one-run ball, he also drove in the game-winner with a base hit in the fifth for a 2-1 Swamp Bats win in the seven-inning affair. The two teams will play one more time in Keene on July 28.

“I let him hit,” McKenna said with a slight grin. “And he got the game winning hit. Go figure. And I still don’t think he can hit. But that’s just me.”

O’Connell, who is a junior at Duke, actually pitched for Nashua in the Futures League in 2024, but didn’t look nearly as good as last night – 0-1, 7.29 in five appearances. Last night he checked his former team on one run on five hits over five innings, walking one and striking out seven.

But the Silver Knights, while holding their own against their NECBL opponent, couldn’t cash in on a few chances.

“We’ve been telling you all year how we lose close baseball games, the reason why we lose close baseball games and it happened again,” Nashua manager Nick Guarino said. “It was good confidence to come out here and compete, but you see they (Keene) don’t make many mistakes at all. We didn’t take advantage of the one they did.”

That was a bloop over third that Keene third baseman Nico Senese couldn’t get to in the bottom of the the fifth, the ball going off his glove as both hit the ground with Nashua’s Peter Fischer on second. Fischer could have quite possibly scored, except he froze between second and third waiting to see if the catch was made – not realizing there were two outs. Had he left full speed on contact, he might have scored the tying run.

“He didn’t know how many outs there were, so we don’t score a run there,” Guarino said. “We give up a leadoff walk in the first and it ends up being a run.”

Guarino went through a few more mistakes, including Knights’ Mason Wilson being thrown out at home on a double steal attempt that had other aspects to it.

“Small things that we’ve been doing all year but haven’t been doing lately,” Guarino said. “We had a chance to win that game today, and gave it right to them…”

At same time, it doesn’t show up on the record for Nashua. Knights starter Colten Shaffer walked Keene’s Chris Polemeni leading off the game, and Polemeni scored on a one-out double by Charlie Meglio for a 1-0 lead.

Nashua got their first hit off O’Connell, a two-out double in the fourth by Caleb Vacchiano, and he scored on Robby Grasso’s RBI single, tying things at one.

But while Nashua reliever Declan Wilkes was solid for two innings, he gave up a leadoff double to Keene’s Avery Smith, and one out later O’Connell singled him home with the game winner.

But Guarino, whose team actually outhit Keene 5-4, said the experience overall was worth it.

“It was great, it was good for the state,” he said. “Go head to head. We’ve got guys who can play over there. … These are highly talented guys. But like I told you, our guys could go compete with them, and they did tonight.”

“It was very cool for the state, and for both organizations,” McKenna said.