AUBURN – Ask Alyssa Levesque how often she has come on in relief with the game on the line, and she’ll tell you how rare a feat it is for her.

“Usually never,” says the Edward Little senior pitcher.

Tuesday, with Mt. Blue mounting a late rally, Levesque was summoned to put out the fire. With the Cougars threatening and EL clinging to a three-run lead, Levesque escaped a jam in the sixth and then put Mt. Blue down in order to preserve an 8-4 win.

“I just tried to relax and trust my teammates,” said Levesque. “Megan (Hussar) and Emily (Grund) made great catches and Emily (Johnson) made one in the outfield. I wasn’t really worried especially with the team I have behind me.”

It was an important victory for EL (10-5), which lost a heartbreaker Saturday against Oxford Hills. The Red Eddies bounced back and produced a solid outing and barely flinched as the Cougars made their late charge.

“We put some things together today, defensively and offensively,” said EL coach Elaine Keene. “We put the bunts down. We ran the bases extremely well. Those are just little things that we need to do.”

EL finishes the regular season today against Mt. Ararat. A win could put the Red Eddies as high as sixth in the Eastern A standings, but Keene figures the team should be at least solid in seventh.

“That gets us a home prelim game and starts that way instead of having to travel right away,” said Keene.

Mt. Blue (6-10) hoped to bolster its standing but remains on the playoff bubble.

“This would have gotten us in, but I still think we’re going to get in,” said Mt. Blue coach Paul Rodrigue. “Maybe it will be 10th or 11th. We had a chance to host if we got up to eighth. I think we can still get in. We’re hoping to go to practice (Wednesday) with the thought that we’ll get in.”

EL built a 7-0 lead through the first four innings. The Red Eddies took advantage of five Mt. Blue errors.

“What we did was put the ball in play and make the other team have to make plays,” said Keene. “That’s not something we were necessarily doing at the beginning of the year. I’m pleased with that. At the beginning of the year, we were striking out eight to 10 times per game. We’re forcing other teams to do things instead of us having to do them.”

The Cougars got one back when Taryn Kennedy singled in run in the fifth. In the sixth, the Cougars produce five hits. Sabrina Keach doubled in a pair and Tanisha Pellarma singled in a run to make it 7-4.

Levesque was brought in to replace starter Miranda Martin with one out and one runner on. Levesque quickly got the second out with a strike out. After Jo Laplant reached on an infield hit, Levesque served up a pop out that was caught by catcher Becca Witten.

“It was kind of a relief,” said Levesque of that strike out. “It’s just relaxes me more.”

EL padded the lead in the sixth on a Brittany Michaud RBI triple. Levesque then got three straight outs in the seventh to finish the game. Grund, Hussar and Johnson made fine defensive plays in the field to secure the win.

“On Saturday, we had a couple errors and some unearned runs,” said Levesque of Saturday’s game in which the Vikings rallied from two runs down three times. “We didn’t want to feel like that again.”

EL scored twice in the second when Grund scored on an error and Witten scored on a Jasmine Clarke squeeze bunt. In the third, Witten walked with the bases load and a flyball by Kim Lawrence was dropped in the outfield, allowing three runs to score for a 6-0 lead. Jena Dubois scored in the fourth when Martin was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded.

“It hurt us to fall behind by that much,” said Rodrigue.