Coffey Post's Brendon Doughty delivers a pitch during Friday night's Senior Legion Tourney game at Historic Holman Stadium. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – The New Hampshire American Senior Legion Baseball Tournament isn’t exactly rocket science.

You survive and advance.

That’s exactly what the Nashua James E. Coffey Post 3 team did on Friday night, holding off Keene Post 4, 7-4, after being up 5-0 at one point.

“It’s what the tournament’s all about,” CoffeyPost manager Norm Kerman said. “They’re (Keene) a good team, lot of guys from their high school team and other high schools in the area who are good baseball players.”

But not good enough in this case, as now Nashua moves to today’s Day 2, set to face familiar District B foe Rochester Post 7 tonight at 7 at Historic Holman Stadium.

One would have thought that up 5-0 with lefty Brendon Doughty on the mound, it was money in the bank. But Doughty and his often artistic ability tired and lost the plate in the fifth, and Keene plated four to cut the deficit to a run. Doughty, after a leadoff double by Keene’s Sam Goodwin, walked three straight, ruining his shutout and spelling his exit. Reliever Aiden O’Connor also walked in a run and gave up a two-run single to Keene’s Cayden Martel that made it a one-run game.

But O’Connor righted the ship with a big strikeout of Dillon DiPietro to end the inning and prevent further damage.

He then pitched a one-two-three sixth and fellow reliever Jacoby Cassie did the same in the seventh for the win.

But the key was for Nashua to squelch Keene’s momentum at the plate as well, tacking on single runs in the sixth (a Cassie RBI single) and seventh (a Nick Wyner RBI groundout to first) for the 7-4 final.

“Huge,” Kerman said. “Absolutely huge. I told them when we came in (after Keene scored), we don’t need to jump on it and get seven or eight right now. We just need to get a couple. That’s exactly what they did, which was awesome.”

Doughty and Keene starter Isaac Clough were locked in a pitchers duel through the first couple of innings, it seemed, as both pitched in and out of bases loaded situations.

But Coffey struck in the third, Gavin Santos tripling in a run and Wyner hitting sac fly for a 2-0 lead.

Coffey Post infielder Keenan Myers has everything he needs to tag out Keene’s Sam Goodwin — except the ball — during Friday night’s Senior Legion Tourney contest at Historic Holman Stadium. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

The Defenders appeared to break the game open with three in the fourth. After Cassie reached on an infield hit, Mario Ramirez and Liam Ireland hit back-to-back RBI doubles and Keenan Myers’ sac fly made it 5-0.

Ben Geiger will take the mound tonight, without the pressure of getting that first win. If Nashua can triumph again, it bypasses Sunday and would play on Monday.

But Friday was the hard part.

“These tournaments, when it’s double elimination, winning the first one is always huge,” Kerman said. “It sets you up for success on the road. Winning Game One is always a good thing.”

SCORES AND SCHEDULE

In the other three games, Bedford mercied Salem 18-4 in a game that saw a combined 19 walks; Rochester handled Lebanon 7-1 and Exeter beat Laconia 10-6.

Today’s games are in the losers bracket, Salem vs. Laconia at 10 a.m.and Keene vs. Lebanon at 1 p.m. Then it’s the two winners bracket games, Bedford vs. Exeter at 4 and of course Nashua vs. Rochester at 7.