And then there were just two.

It seems these days, the biggest state American Senior Legion baseball stories are who is not fielding a team rather than who is. And this year is no exception as the number of local Senior teams keeps shrinking. Only Merrimack Post 98 and Nashua Post 124 have survived, and will play each other on Monday night at 7 at Holman Stadium to open the District B season.

The latest casualty is Milford Post 23, which barely had enough players to finish the Senior season a year ago, missing the tournament after being a dominant regular season team in 2016.

“I’m very disappointed,” Milford manager Harold Webster said. “I went to 17 baseball games during the spring and talked to kids, parents, and I thought we were all set. We had a bad year last year and I guess the kids just didn’t want to come out.”

For the second straight year, Hudson Post 48 won’t have a Senior team, either, but both Milford and Hudson will have a Junior Legion team, which is for the younger age group (comparable to JV-freshman high school ball). The hope is those younger programs keep the hope for the eventual return of both to the Senior program.

“Hudson’s doing the right thing, they’re building a team up,” Merrimack Post 98 manager Mike Henzley said. “I think they’ll be back next year with a competitive team.”

“It’s really, really hard to see,” Nashua field manager Tim Lunn said. “The ripples go as far north as Plymouth, which won’t have a team this year either.”

As for Milford, Webster knew the second day of tryouts that his Senior program was in trouble. About 18 players showed up, “but only four who should have been on a Senior team. It’s a different world. It’s too bad.”

It’s definitely a somewhat different world for Senior Legion this year as it will no longer be a nine-inning game, but now seven innings. Plus there will be re-entry, as it is in high school. There’s pros and cons to the shortening of games, according to Nashua manager Tim Lunn.

“I liked the nine inning games, it was fun,” Lunn said. “As a team last year, we had a lot of comebacks in the late innings. But for pitching, it’s easier on our kids. Plus it’s better for scheduling. A lot of teams are playing doubleheaders to avoid playing on the weekends if you can get them in during the week.”

“I was all for it,” Henzley said of the move to seven innings, “until I realized I’d be deep with pitching this year.”

On the weekends, a lot of Legion players play AAU baseball. But the Senior program statewide suffered a black eye a year ago when Exeter had to forfeit its first state tournament game due to a lack of players. Exeter is back this season.

The Senior state tournament was originally penciled in at Holman Stadium but there was a mix-up in the dates. Sources say the thought was the tournament would begin the weekend of July 20 – the corresponding week with last year – but instead the District season is starting later so the state tourney was slated to start July 27. The Nashua Silver Knights were on the road the earlier weekend, but not the last weekend in July. Thus the tourney is now at Manchester’s Gill Stadium fo rthe second straight year, not considered ideal because of the artificial turf and manufactured mound.

Here’s a look at how the Nashua and Merrimack Senior teams may shape up. Both finished their District B regular seasons at 9-7 last summer.

NASHUA

For Lunn’s squad, which finished fourth in last year’s tourney, there will be some familiar names from this spring’s high school season, including the Nashua North battery of pitcher C.J. Barrett and catcher Will Brooks.

Besides Barrett, some of the other arms will include Nashua South’s Zach Finkelstein, Hunter Routhier, Bishop Guertin’s Gavin and Brandon Boyce, plus Noah Therrien, and Hollis Brookline’s Joe Brown. Brown may be the Monday night starting pitcher.

Key position players include infielders Trevor Kelly (Bishop Guertin) and James Bolton (North), and outfielders Mason Matylewski (South) and Nic Direnzo (Hollis Brookline).

Last year’s team was offensive-minded, but Lunn feels this year will be the opposite. “Last year we put up seven-eight runs a game,” he said. “I don’t know if this we have that thump. If we can adjust, we’ll be OK. We’re going to have to rely on our pitching. But I like this team’s versatility compared to last year.”

MERRIMACK

The former longtime Daniel Webster Coach, Mike Henzley, who runs the progra but normally coaches the Junior team, couldn’t find anyone to take over for last year’s field manager, Chris McKenzie (he opted not to return), so he’ll be the guy.

“I couldn’t find that right fit,” he said.

But it may not be a bad gig, as a couple of mainstays are back from a team that lost two straight close games in last year’s tourney to be gone by noon of the second day – pitcher-shortstop Justin Grassini and big first baseman Alex Thornton. Grassini is transferring from Cortland to Northern Essex so he can focus on baseball rather than football, according to Henzley.

Merrimack also picked up Bedford High School’s concensus No. 2 hurler, Pat Harrington, and he may be on the mound on Monday night. Thornton can pitch as well as Jamie Pare (picked up from Milford since no team), and Jake Mainey (Merrimack).

“We’ve probably got about nine guys,” Henzley said of his arms.

Besides Grassini and Thornton, key position players include Cody Pfeifer (he pitched last summer, too) at third, Eric Stack (infield), Spencer Clark (Merrimack’s catcher), and returnee Tyler DeNeill in center field.

“We’re a little soft up the middle defensively,” Henzley said, “so I think defense right now is our biggest issue.”

These are the teams competing in both districts this summer:

District B – Nashua, Merrimack, Dover, Portsmouth, Derry, Exeter, Londonderry, Rochester, Salem.

District A – Concord, Jutras (Manchester), Keene, Laconia, Sweeney (Manchester), Lebanon, Weare.