BIDDEFORD – At 48 degrees with a persistent drizzle, Monday wasn’t the best spring day for softball. But few afternoons this year have been ideal, and with a 1-4 record over the last five games heading into Monday’s matchup against Bonny Eagle (4-6), Biddeford was willing to take the bad with the good. They just needed something – anything – to jump start this team again.

What the Tigers got was a back-and-forth contest of missed pitches, walks and errors that kept things close until Biddeford (8-4) rallied in back-to-back innings. The Tigers fought their way out to a 6-4 lead in the fifth, but things were still relatively tight until the home team let loose in the next inning, loading the bases twice and bringing five runs home for an 11-4 victory.

“We almost got to breathe again a little bit,” said Biddeford Head Coach Leon Paquin. “Because you come off of those close games against those tough top teams and then you play someone else and you hope that you have that same energy. They started a little flat or tired, but you’ve got to have that energy every time you play. And it took them a little while, but thank God they got it going, because we needed this one today.”

While Biddeford starting pitcher Sarah Gilblair was able to fight off her own demons, struggling out of bases-loaded jams in the fifth and the sixth and surrendering just one run in the process, Bonny Eagle’s Erica Sullivan wasn’t so lucky. Sullivan seemed to lose a bit of composure during the sixth, and hit three batters in the inning out of a game total of five.

“(Because of the weather) she had just an awful grip on the ball,” said Bonny Eagle Head Coach Caterina Riitano. “She might have had a little fatigue, too. She looked like she was starting to lose it there a little at the end, and it was just too late (to pull her), because by the time I got my other pitcher warmed up, we got that double play and got out of it. She’s a strong pitcher, but you’re going to have your good days and your bad days, and we had that one inning where we gave up some bloops and I think after that mentally it brought us down a little.”

The Tigers took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second when Katelyn Lebreux was hit by Sullivan, advanced to third on a couple of sacrifices, and then came home with two outs when Bonny Eagle catcher Jessica Sullivan threw the ball into left field on an attempted pickoff. The Scots returned the favor in the bottom of the second, getting a man on before Mariah Harrison belted a waist-high ball over the centerfield fence to make it 2-1.

“I called an inside pitch but she must have put it over the plate,” Paquin said. “But give that girl credit, because she turned on it and she hit it hard.”

“She got a hold of it and it sailed,” added Riitano. “And it’s about time, because she’s been getting hits like that, and finally we had a fence to actually show something for it. When we play at home we don’t have an outfield fence, and that makes it kind of difficult (to hit a home run).”

The Tigers tied the game at two in the second when Amethyst Hersom doubled to leadoff, moved to third on a sacrifice, then came home when Alex Quigley beat out a little single on a ground ball hit to second base. The Tigers scored again in the third, this time as Gilblair lined a double to centerfield, bringing in Mariah Albert. It was the first of two RBIs for Gilblair, who gave as good as she got when at the plate.

“She has done a great job pitching this year, but we have struggled to get her runs,” Paquin said. “She has lost some close games this year where she has worked her butt off. But the team picked her up by coming back and getting a win for her when she wasn’t on today. (Bonny Eagle) scored four runs today and sometimes that beats us. But today they came through.”

Bonny Eagle retied the game at 3-3 in the fourth, then took their final lead in the top of the fifth as Lindsay Somerset led off with a double to left, then came home on a line single to right centerfield by Jessica Sullivan. Biddeford wasted no time in striking back, loading the bases in the bottom of the inning and making it 4-4 when Hersom was hit by a pitch in the foot. Alyssa Baldino then lined a shot to center, bringing in two, and the Tigers took a 6-4 lead. The Scots loaded the bases again with one out in the top of the sixth, but Gilblair forced two quick infield outs and the threat was ended.

“They had the bases loaded there, and they had runners on the inning prior to that and they only got one run, so it was good to get out of it,” Paquin said. “(Gilblair) didn’t have half her stuff, because she threw almost 200 pitches in 12 innings against South Portland. So she is still recovering from that. She was off, but she’s a gutsy girl, and she got through it.”

In the last half of the sixth, the Tigers finally broke through, as Erica Sullivan loaded the bases, and then gave up a line single to Gilblair that brought a man home. Another run came in on a passed ball, before a hit batsman reloaded the bases just in time for Hersom to ground back to the mound. Erica Sullivan misplayed the ball and everyone was safe to make it 9-4. The Tigers added two more on yet another hit batsman, and a single to right field by Ashley Jones. The Scots did not threaten in the top of the seventh.

“I think (getting out of that jam in the sixth) got the wheels going with our bats,” Gilblair said. “Our lineup realized that they had come close there and that we needed to pick it up. It was nice to know that I could help the team out, not just by pitching, but by hitting, too.”

Bonny Eagle second baseman Brooke VanRosendael (9) can’t quite get the tag around in time to catch Biddeford’s Mariah Albert (6), as the latter pops up to her feet after stealing a base in the bottom of the third inning. (Staff photo by Emory Rounds)