Nashua North baseball holds off Pinkerton

NASHUA – Mike Robert didn’t have his best stuff Wednesday night. In the end, it didn’t matter.

The Nashua High School North lefty battled through five innings, striking out 12 Pinkerton batters, and helped the Titans defeat the Astros 4-2 at Holman Stadium.

Robert allowed one earned run on two hits and three walks, and Ricky Constant got the save, pitching two innings of relief and striking out two while allowing two hits and a walk.

The Titans’ pitchers recorded all but seven outs on strikeouts and retired 16 of the final 20 Pinkerton batters.

“Mike fought through,” North coach Kyle Harvell said. “He didn’t have his best stuff, but he had enough to compete. There was a competitor in there and him getting us five innings was huge. An average Mike Robert is going to win most games and we just needed an average Mike Robert and that’s about what we got.”

Robert also delivered an RBI single in the bottom of the third inning that put North (10-4) up two runs. Brendan Martin also went 2 for 4 with an RBI and Matt Fortin drew three walks, including an intentional one in the second inning.

Connor Donohue took the loss for Pinkerton (3-10), going six innings and allowing two earned runs on five hits and five walks with two strikeouts. Donohue also had a hit and scored a run, while Ryan Day drove in a run with a sacrifice fly that helped put the Astros up 2-0 in the top of the second.

“We were in the game the whole time,” Pinkerton coach Steve Campo said. “Robert did a great job throwing the ball. I thought we made some adjustments against him in that second inning and I thought we did later, but the consistency wasn’t there from us throughout the game.”

Pinkerton was able to take the lead with the help of a North error, but the Astros returned the favor in the bottom of the inning, allowing the Titans to take a 3-2 lead.

“Answering in the second inning was huge,” Harvell said. “They had some moment and thought they were going to roll, and to come back and answer was huge.”

Once he had the lead, Robert settled in and shut down the Astros, retiring 11 of the final 12 batters he faced. The senior struck out at least two in each inning, and twice fanned the side.

“He did a good job going to the curve ball more with two strikes and getting it down,” Campo said. “He didn’t really use the curve ball early and established the fastball.”

After the third, Donohue was able to match the Titans’ pitchers, putting down 10 of the final 11 batters in the game. The only base runner North had after the third inning came on a one-out walk to Fortin in the fourth.

“We played well early and we fell asleep and we hung on in the end,” Harvell said. “We’ve got to follow the process for seven innings, not just the first three. If we go through the process correctly, we’ll be OK.”

Both teams are back in action on Friday, as North heads to Manchester Central (3-9) and Pinkerton hosts Bishop Guertin (9-5).