Tangled up in the dirt with Dirigo first baseman Ellen Wainwright, the Monmouth freshman ignored any pain and looked at her coach.

“The first thing I asked my coach was, ‘Did we win?'” Day said.

Her Mustangs indeed had won, claiming a 3-2 nail-biter in the bottom of the seventh. Day’s routine grounder to second ended up plating the winning run when an error on the play ended the game instead of ending the inning and forcing extra innings. Day didn’t see all that. A collision with Wainwright left her sprawled on the ground without knowing the outcome.

“This was a huge game for us,” Monmouth coach Dave Kaplan said. “We needed this Heal Points badly. This could move us up to get a home game for the first round.”

The Mustangs (8-6) got a pair of clutch plays on the seventh inning to earn the victory. Rhiannon Dumond had a pinch-hit single that earned an extra base on an error. After a Haley Fletcher fielder’s choice, Day came up with the chance to drive in the winning run.

“I just needed to hit it,” Day said. “The inning before, I was up in that position and I hit it to the third baseman. She got me out. I knew I just had to get on base.”

Dirigo’s cause was plagued by two errors in the last inning and three overall.

“I think it was the third inning and I looked at the girls and said that the difference of this game was going to be who makes the least number of mistakes and that wasn’t us,” Dirigo coach Sara Thurston said. “They did a great job. They had some solid defensive plays and we decided to throw the ball around a couple of extra times when we didn’t need to.”

Dirigo (9-5) had the chance to take the lead in the top of the seventh after Ellie Jasper singled and advanced to third. She was out at the plate when she tried to score on a ball that got away from catcher Hannah Anderson. The ball was quickly retrieved and Jasper was tagged out.

Then in the bottom of the inning, Kaplan decided to send Dumond to the plate with one out. He had seen her hit in batting practice and thought she might be the right move at that moment.

“She’s been swinging the ball pretty well,” Kaplan said. “She’s a spot player for us. She’s a lefty and they hadn’t seen her. She always makes contact. In that position right there, there’s a lot of pressure on the defense. So I just felt good about her taking a swing.”

Dumond was having other thoughts.

“I was like ,’At least I won’t be the last out,'” Dumond said.

She was right about that. Dumond went up and hit a single to left. When the ball was bobbled in shallow left, Dumond was able to take second.

“Coach said to try and drag it if I could but if I got one strike, I should swing away,” Dumond said.

After Fletcher’s fielder’s choice put runner Sidney Wilson at third, Day came up with the chance to end it.

“She’s so clutch,” Kaplan said. “As a freshman in basketball and softball, she’s got great instincts and a great feel for the sports that she plays.”

Day hit a grounder to second. It was a routine play and required a throw of only about five feet, but it sailed and went over the outstretched glove of Wainwright. While Day was racing for the base, Wilson was scoring the winning run.

“I was just sprinting to first,” said Day, who collided with Wainwright at the base and felt a shot of pain in her head that raced down her back for a moment. “It wasn’t a great hit, but I knew I had to get on base. So I sprinted to first.”

The Mustangs had already rallied twice to tie the game. Dirigo took the 1-0 lead in the first when Megan Bradbury singled in Emma Lueders. Monmmouth got that back in the bottom of the inning on a Caroline Bonenfant single that plated Day, who had reached on a single.

Dirigo had a prime opportunity in the second when it loaded the bases with one out. Monmouth switched pitchers, bringing in Emily Chasse for Katie Canning. Chasse got a strike out and liner to end the threat. She allowed just four hits and one run the rest of the game.

“We had the bases loaded on that one inning,” said Thurston, whose team stranded five runners overall. “It was hard walking off between those two innings. Three girls on right there. That was a chance where we could have broken the game open. We didn’t capitalize.”

Dirigo did take a 2-1 lead in the sixth. Kelsey Hutchins had a bloop single drop between three fielders. She eventually came around to score on a wild pitch.

Monmouth, which had a runner thrown out at the plate in the fifth after miscommunication at third, tied the game in the bottom of the sixth. Bonenfant led off with a double. A Dirigo error allowed her to take third and a wild pitch gave her the chance to score.

Bonenfant finished with two hits, a run scored and an RBI. Day, Canning, Buzzell and Dumond had the other Monmouth hits. Dirigo got single hits from Lueders, Bradbury, Hutchins, Gabby Scott and Jasper.

Dirigo pitcher Katelyn Olsen pitched well, scattering six hits and walking none. She struck out seven.

kmills@sunjournal.com

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