Former Nashua South and Coffey Post standout pitcher Brendon Doughty delivers a pitch in his Silver Knights debut on Sunday. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – Brendon Doughty was working for the Nashua Silver Knights on Sunday, as usual for a home game.

Except his job had changed drastically.

Doughty, the former Nashua High School South and Coffey Legion Post 3 standout pitcher, signed with the team late this past week, was added to the roster and tossed 4.1 innings in relief in Sunday’s 7-4 10-inning loss to the Westfield Starfires at Historic Holman Stadium.

It’s not your typical desperation move that teams make at the end of the year. Knights general manager Cam Cook mentioned to Doughty that the team may need arms down the stretch, and Doughty let the team know he’d be available whenever Coffey Post’s season was over. It ended in the state finals at HHS this past Tuesday – he started the game – and thus by the weekend he’d be ready to go.

For Doughty, Sunday was the experience of a lifetime.

“It’s unreal,” he said. “I’ve lived in Nashua my whole life, come to Silver Knights games my whole life,” he said. “Absolutely and thankful to get the opportunity I got. … I told them absolutely after I was done with Legion I’d love to come play, and it all just fell together.”

Doughty allowed one run on four hits, walking one, striking out four, and hit a batter. That hit batsman led to the game getting tied as Westfield got two hits, the latter a blooper to plate the tying run in the top of the ninth. Otherwise Doughty might have been an even bigger story, getting the win. Instead he wasn’t involved in the decision, but he entered the game in the fifth with one on and no one out.

“He was pitching pretty good, he was rolling,” Knights manager Nick Guarino said. “We knew he was built up to go 80-90 pitches. So let’s throw him out there, see how long we can get with them. He was pitching really good. So send him out there for the ninth to get the win. Hey it is what it is.”

“I felt really good, actually,” Doughty said. “All my pitches were moving well. Got a lot of whiffs, fastballs felt pretty good out of the hand with a little bit of run, so I’m happy with that.”

It’s a great launching pad into fall ball at Fitchburg State late this month. He’ll likely get some more mound time later this week.

“I just want to keep building off of how I threw today and get to Fitchburg at 100 percent,” Doughty said.