AUBURN – For some teams, in their first playoff game in years, an immediate deficit might have been enough to induce panic.

For the Edward Little softball team, a 1-0 deficit in the first inning was nothing. The Red Eddies simply shrugged it off, retook the lead and held off Brunswick’s comeback hopes for a 4-3 Eastern A preliminary win Wednesday.

“We’ve been behind before,” said EL coach Elaine Keene. “When we were at Brunswick, we were down 6-1 going into the seventh inning and won 7-6. We’ve been behind in some big games and come back. They’re tested, and they’ve learned how to be aggressive and pull it out.”

The win was the first playoff win for the Red Eddies since beating Biddeford in nine innings in 2001. EL made the playoffs in 2002 and 2003 but lost in the prelims. EL advances to Thursday’s quarterfinal against third-ranked Bangor.

“I think the last four years we’ve had some almosts and what ifs, even this year we’ve had some almosts and what ifs,” said Keene. “They’ve battled through all those. They’ve never made excuses, and they’re being rewarded right now for their hard work. I’m so happy for them because they deserve every bit of it.”

Brunswick took a quick lead when Jess Russell led off with a home run, but EL quickly answered that with a pair of runs in the bottom of the first.

“I think we just knew we needed to get hits,” said third baseman Megan Hussar. “We’ve been working all week on getting line drive hits, and in the bottom of the inning we came back and did that.”

After Alyssa Levesque reached on a single, Hussar tripled her in with two outs to tie the game. Emily Grund followed with another triple for the 2-1 lead.

“I think once one person gets a hit, we all get upbeat and excited,” said Hussar. “Everyone just starts hitting.”

EL added two more in the fourth. After Becca Witten doubled, Emily Johnson had an RBI single. Levesque followed with her second hit of the game to make it 4-1.

The Dragons got one back in the fifth when Emily Hatzel’s sacrifice fly scored Russell. Brunswick threatened consistently over the final three innings but stranded five runners, 10 overall.

“I think I was more nervous than they were,” said Keene. “We talk about doing your job and staying within yourself. You can’t try to do something you physically can’t do. They’re smart. They’re making plays. They know the situations. They can’t have any more pressure than what they have.”

In the seventh, Brunswick got a single from Estella Jacobs and Haley Clark, putting runners in scoring position with no outs. After Levesque got a strike out, Mardi Artis singled in Jacobs to make it 4-3.

“It’s always nerve-wracking,” said Levesque. “It’s really stressful on my part. I’m scared I’m going to make a mistake, but I’m confident in the players behind me that they’re going to make the plays.”

Levesque got the second out with a nice pitch on the outside corner for a called third strike. Then she served up a ground ball that Hussar pounced on and gunned to first for the final out.

“I was a little relieved (after the second out), but there were still runners on third and second,” said Levesque. “It would have been a lot of stress on our team to have to get our bats going.”