Nashua's River Hart heads to the dugout greeting to celebrate his two-run homer Sunday vs. Vermont at Holman Stadium. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – Derek Finlay and River Hart were on the Holman Stadium grass near the bullpen, tossing the ball back and forth.

“We were playing catch together,” Finlay said, “we were talking about how we never played catch before. We lived 10 minutes away from each other and are best friends. And we’ve never played baseball together, really, we’ve always played against each other. It’s been a rivalry.”

But now, for the first time, Finlay, a former Nashua High School North standout, and Hart, a former South top player, are together in all kinds of weather, playing for the Nashua Silver Knights. They made their debuts last weekend and are two of a few locals on the team, including former South and current Rivier University pitcher Nolan Mederos, and former Bishop Guertin pitcher Brandon Metevier. Metevier, a pitcher at Nichols College, was on the Knights last year as well.

Finlay and Hart have yet to make their mark completely at the collegiate level. Finlay, a shortstop, was redshirted at the University of Albany his freshman year, while Hart, as a freshman at UMass Lowell, saw limited outfield duty but did get more time late in the season.

ALWAYS HOPING TO BE KNIGHTED

Finlay sat in the home dugout at Bishop Guertin’s Elliott Field during an interview after playing a game for Nashua’s Coffey Post Legion team last July and expressed his desire to play for the Silver Knights the following summer. He got his wish. He arrived on the first day of workouts 10 days ago and was thrilled – not only to be a Silver Knight for the summer, but to be playing again. For the first time since he can remember, he wasn’t playing in the spring, red shirted at Albany.

“This was the team I used to watch as a little kid,” Finlay said. “Being out here as one of those guys is pretty cool. … As you know, I like to compete, sitting around watching wasn’t too fun for me.”

Which may be one of the reasons why he says he’d like to transfer from Albany, perhaps play somewhere in New England, closer to home. He’s in the portal now, and feels his first few weeks as a Silver Knight will be important to him getting interest from other schools and coaches.

“See how I play the first couple of weeks and see who wants (him),” Finlay said.

He has no beef with UAlbany, saying the coaches “were good to me, the guys were awesome. I just want to be closer to home.”

Finlay, as he always says, thrives on the competition. He knows there’s competition for infield spots with the Knights, but with the complete team not yet all arrived due to the collegiate post season, he started all three games on Opening Weekend and batted over .400.

“There’s six games a week, so it’s realistically you’re not going to play every game,” Finlay said.

Finlay came home whenever Albany was on the road, and worked out with whatever local team was around, including his alma mater, North. “Just tried to keep sharp, even though I wasn’t playing,” he said.

He was taking ground balls every day in the spring, so getting adjusted defensively wasn’t going to be a problem. But seeing live pitching, that’s another story, as he hadn’t seen any in a competitive situation since the fall, and went right at it last weekend. You’d never have known it. “Hopefully we’ll get in the groove pretty quick.”

And that’s what he did. Nothing will compare to the feeling when he took the field Opening Night. The only negative was he fanned against Vermont fireballer Sean Gamble with the tying run at third in the ninth, but that’s the game, he said. The crowd really made it easier.

“It’s been a while since I got out there, it was cool,” Finlay said. “Kine of what I expected, it was awesome getting out here in front of the big crowd. It was really cool. It really felt like (the fans) were riding with the guys, and in that last at bat, I was really feeling it. They made me feel like I could do it.”

And guess what? In Sunday’s game he faced Gamble again and walked on four pitches, and is now hitting .385.

Hart arrived the next day, his UMass-Lowell season ending the previous day. He made a near immediate impact, hitting a big two-run homer in Nashua’s first win of the season last weekend. He hit another on Sunday and has three on the season.

Hart, who graduated a year ahead of Finlay, was originally ticketed to go to Souhern New Hampshire University, but never ended up there. After his senior year at South, he got a spot in a summer collegiate league in New York, playing for the Niagara Power of the Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League as in incoming freshman.

“I faced a lot of good collegiate arms in New York, and I felt I wanted to pursue my Division I dream,” he said, as SNHU is Division II.

Then he went spent a post grad year at a prep school in Knoxville, Tenn., and he heard the views on players from this region.

“Every day it was ‘Northeast guys don’t play enough, northeast guys don’t play enough,'” Hart said. “That was coming from a lot of colleges down there. So I kind of had a chip on my shoulder. I wanted to prove I can play, that northeast guys can play.”

Hart played against a lot of junior college and NAIA competition. “The amount of development I got was unreal,” he said.

And then he knew he was ready to play at a school like UMass Lowell, where, as a freshman, he made the most of his limited opportunities and wasn’t frustrated at all.

“I had 46 (at-bats),” he said, as he hit .286 with six doubles. “It was definitely spotty. The competition going from New Hampshire baseball to the Division I competition was a lot different, so it was a little bit of an adjustment. Especially when we go to play those big schools early on, like Kansas State, etc.”

Hart knew he had to make the most of whatever time he got because everything is so competitive within his own team, not just against the opposition.

“It was great having to compete,” he said. “Every day you’re like, man, that guy’s spot may not be every day. You’ve got to come out with some fire. I’ve got to keep competing to get that spot.

“It can honestly go either way. When you get an AB and you’re confident – I got a pinch hit at bat (on his final day of the postseason) and ended up getting a double. But there were definitely ups and downs, ‘I’ve got to produce’, and you get in your own head. But other times I’m confident, I’m ready to go, and I trust my ability, so there was definitely a bunch of that.”

So Hart felt he got a lot out of his freshman year. “Yes, 100 percent,” he said, noting he’s staying at UMass-Lowell. “Love the coaching staff, love the guys, had a real good exit meeting about my role and everything like that for next year. I’m really looking forward to it. And this summer, being back home, is awesome.”

This is Hart’s first time back playing at Holman since South fell in the Division I quarterfinals to Exeter in June of 2022.

“It’s surreal,” he said. “I grew up watching the Silver Knights, and being in this uniform and starting (in left field that night) is awesome. I can’t wait to get thing rolling.”

The funny thing is Hart has never played left field at Holman, “and I needed some reps with that short wall over there.”

Hart had his Nashua return in the back of his mind while trying to stay, as he said, “locked in” on the UMass Lowell season. But he didn’t wait 24 hours to get back on the diamond with his new team after the UML season ended. Some players, especially if they aren’t from the area, will take a couple of days to recharge. Hart would have none of it.

“The Futures League starts super early,” Hart said. “So I was like, ‘I’m going to play tomorrow’. I didn’t want to take any days off, because I wanted to get out there and get as many at-bats as I can.”

Judging from his play at the start of the season, he’ll get plenty of them with Nashua.

Nashua South alum Nolan Mederos delivers a pitch during Sunday’s Silver Knights game vs. Vermont at Holman Stadium. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

Also on opening weekend, Nolan Mederos made his return to the mound after his Rivier season was cut short by a shoulder impingement, as he was shut down after going 2-2, 5.13 as a precaution. He had 25 strikeouts in 26.1 innings, and threw hard off the mound in a one inning weekend relief stint for the Knights at Holman.

At the beginning of the spring, Mederos was lights out. “Just throwing strikes in the zone,” he said. “I’m back to throwing now, and I’m looking forward to teaming up with a few guys I played with (like fellow former Panther Hart) and meeting new guys.”

He’s known Hart and Finlay since he was nine years old “so it’s really special to be playing with them at this level.”

Mederos was starter at Riv, and he enjoys being there. “It’s nice being close to home,” he said.

He’ll be mainly a reliever, it seems, with Nashua but that’s fine with him. “I think it’ll be cool, it’s a different role,” he said.

Metivier was both a starter and a reliever at Nichols, and he’ll likely reprise his relief role with the Knights – he made a one-inning appearance during Opening Weekend.

Hulfachor, who was just behind Hart in joining the team, set to pitch on the road this past week, pitched in relief for UMass Lowell as senior – he has one more year of eligibility – and went 1-1 with a save, striking out 21 in 21.1 innings. He made his second Silver Knights appearance on Sunday, pitching a scoreless frame and has not alowed an earned run.