MONMOUTH — The tendency when weighing high school playoff games is to weigh wins, losses and seeds.

When handicapping the bracket-busting potential of the Sacopee Valley girls’ softball team, however, other numbers might have been more valuable. Such as six seniors in the starting lineup. Ten games against Class B opponents, too.

No. 7 Sacopee of South Hiram showed no fear or reverence while taking out No. 2 Monmouth, 3-1, in Thursday’s Western Class C quarterfinal at Chick Field.

Senior right-hander Ashley Pingree allowed only two hits. She surrendered only one walk — one that was all but intentional to Monmouth slugger Reen Kahl in the seventh inning — and struck out five.

Her classmate Melissa Mayhew provided the pop with a no-doubt home run that landed about 25 feet beyond the fence in straightaway center field to lead off the fourth.

“With our schedule, we’ve been looking forward to this,” Pingree said.

Sacopee Valley (7-10) hails from the Western Maine Conference. Monmouth (12-3) was the Mountain Valley Conference champion.

The Hawks will draw another road assignment against an MVC foe, Lisbon, in Saturday’s semifinals. The win was only Sacopee’s second in its past seven games.

“This team has been on a bad roll lately with the ‘B’ schedule,” Sacopee coach Jim Moulton said. “They’re better than they’ve shown all year long numbers-wise.”

Monmouth answered Sacopee’s run in the fourth inning with a quick two-out rally. Kylie Kemp singled, stole second and scored on Kahl’s double to the gap in right center.

Sacopee scratched out two runs with two out in the fifth on a single by McKenzie Ross, an throwing error on a grounder by Chelsey Burrell and three passed balls.

The error prevented the Mustangs from escaping the inning unscathed.

“My shortstop and my third baseman are freshmen. They showed nerves before we even started the game, so we tried to calm them down as best we could,” Monmouth coach Rachel Bernier said. “But the kicker is they’ve played tough games all season long and made awesome plays. Maybe it’s knowing if we didn’t win we were done and that’s what kept those (Sacopee) girls going.”

The back-to-back hits in the Mustangs’ fourth were the extent of their offense. Kemp was the first batter to reach base against Pingree.

Kahl was the only other Mustang to get aboard with her one-out walk in the seventh. Sacopee promptly sealed the game when shortstop Burrell snared Angie Bechard’s line drive and fired to Mayhew, easily completing the double play.

“I knew they had a few good hitters. I just knew to do my thing,” Pingree said. “I felt good warming up. I just had to believe in my defense.”

Sacopee didn’t commit an error. Monmouth made three in addition to the balls that reached the backstop.

Kahl struck out eight, issued only walk, scattered five hits and allowed one earned run. But the veteran Hawks pressed the issue against her with numerous bunts when warranted and exercised textbook patience at the plate when necessary.

“We’ve always been in the playoffs,” noted Mayhew, whose blast was her second of the season. “We’ve lost in the quarterfinals every year I’ve been here.”

Shelly Pellegrino was 2-for-3 for the Hawks.

Pingree needed only 72 pitches and 70 minutes to pick up the biggest win of her career.

“We didn’t get bunts down, didn’t execute on the offensive end, and that kind of limited what we could have,” Bernier said. “I don’t know how many innings we went one-two-three, one-two-three. You’re not going to get anything with that. We weren’t swinging at the good pitches.”

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