Nashua South's Garrett Schmidt tags out North runner James Markley at second during Friday night's Battle of the Bridge at Holman Stadium. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – Staying power.

It’s not often a high school baseball team that has lost five in a row and saw a one-run lead in the seventh inning disappear has it, but the Nashua North Titans were able to outlast city rival Nashua South 7-2 in nine innings Friday night at Holman Stadium.

And we’re talking about a Titan team that left the bases loaded not once, not twice, but three times.

“Our kids did a great job tonight,” Harris said. “Obviously, playing good defense behind (the pitchers) … I’m really proud of the guys the way they played tonight. They really played hard.

“There’s no quit. We’re sitting here with a record we don’t want to be at (4-10).We’ve got to win some games here down the stretch to sneak our way into the postseason, because we know better than anybody, once you get in it doesn’t matter.”

That’s because last year they rode the arm of a freshman named Nolan Sullivan, and last night they did the same thing for nearly seven full innings. Sullivan had checked South on one run on four hits, striking out 12 in just his third start of the season. But in the top of the seventh, after giving up a leadoff hit to Jacobie Caissie and two outs later a walk to Gus Smiley, Harris felt he had had enough, despite Sullivan’s apparent insistence he stay in.

“He was up there in pitches,” Harris said. “As bad as we want to win games, I want to protect my guys first. And listen, he did more than enough to give us an opportunity to win. We left so many guys on base …. He did more than enough keeping those guys at bay, because those guys had been playing some great baseball recently.”

His replacement, lefty Eric McInnis, gave up a game-tying single to South’s Kosay Tanaka that made it 2-2. But then McInnis made a quick stab of a hard grounder off the bat of Panther John Ninteau, fell to the ground but managed to get up and quickly throw a diving Ninteau out at first.

“Outstanding,” Harris said of the winning pitcher. “Eric’s been great for us all year, he’s really been just really steady in that role. He’s athletic, he’s an outfielder for us as well.”

In the eighth, the Titans left the bases loaded for a third time, this time against Caissie, who had relieved Tanaka in the fifth. But in the top of the ninth, they broke through simply by letting the Panthers self-destruct with two of their five errors and five walks plus a hit-by-pitch en route to five runs to break it open. An infield error and a walk spelled Caissie’s exit in favor of Ian O’Connor, who had a 1.41 ERA coming in. But he couldn’t find the plate, walking three straight to force in two runs before another error plated two more off the bat of Jacob Munroe. That made it 6-2 and out.

“We say the same thing all the time, whoever’s going to make the fewest mistakes is going to win the game,” South coach James Gaj said, his team also in a 4-10 rut. “Sullivan pitched a helluva game. The lights do not shine too bright for him; he goes out and does what he’s supposed to.”

Nashua North starter Nolan Sullivan struck out 12 in six-plus innings during Friday night’s Battle of the Bridge vs. Nashua South at Holman Stadium. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

Sullivan did it at the plate as well as North took a 2-0 lead off Tanaka in the top of the first as he doubled in a run and Mario Ramirez plated him with a sac fly. The Panthers answered with doubles by Tanaka and Leo DePaolo in the bottom half to make it 2-1. It stayed that way until the dramatic seventh.

“That was a great game for about eight innings, then the wheels came off in the last inning. That happens sometimes. Big game, bright lights.”

Now the lights get a little brighter, or more intense. Gaj feels eight wins will get teams into the Division I tourney, and both North and South have five left.

“It’s going to hurt in the long run,” Gaj said. “But we’ll see what we can do.”