LISBON — Lisbon’s regular season ended with a thud.

It’s postseason began with a bang. 

Less than a week after being shut out in their regular-season finale for the first time all year, the Greyhounds’ bats came alive in a 9-2 victory against Maranacook in a softball playoff preliminary Tuesday. Lisbon compiled 13 hits over six innings with two doubles and two triples against Maranacook pitcher Paige Costa. 

“I think the girls had a bad taste from the other day of getting shut out to a team we’d beaten earlier in the season,” Lisbon coach Terri Tlumac said. “Everybody came to play today. Everybody out on that field did their job.” 

The hits started early as leadoff hitter Arianna Kahler ripped a triple to center field on the seventh pitch of the contest. She’d be tagged out at home on a fielder’s choice later in the inning, but a two-out RBI by Taylor Plourde down the left-field line scored Monica Austin for Lisbon’s first run. 

The Greyhounds (10-7) compiled four hits in the first inning and three more in both the second and third frames. Kahler’s second hit of the game — a single to left in the second inning — drove in Kipri Steele to give Lisbon a 2-1 lead. 

Kahler finished 2-for-4 with an RBI. She was one of eight Greyhounds with a base hit and one of five with multiple hits. All nine batters reached base and seven touched home. 

“She was a really good speed for us,” Kahler said of Costa. “We do better when we’re hitting off faster pitchers. She was just right down the middle and it was just judgment calls. Once you see one person hit it the timing gets down for everyone else.” 

Lisbon broke the game open with a four-run third, highlighted by a two-run double into the left-center gap by Kailyn Hill. Jasmin Le and Kate Philbrick came into score on the play. Hill touched home on a wild pitch. Plourde, who scored on a fielder’s choice earlier in the inning, doubled off the wall to lead off the frame. 

“Once one person hits everyone hits,” Kahler said. “It reminds us that we can hit. It’s either everyone’s on or everyone’s off and today everyone was really on and we’re excited and we’re ready. It helps playing a team you don’t play in the regular season because there’s no pressure.” 

The Lisbon bats went quiet in the fourth, only to reawaken in the fifth with a pair of singles by Steele and Philbrick. Philbrick’s single down the right-field line drove in Steele from third. Hill’s sacrifice fly plated Philbrick for her third RBI of the game to give Lisbon an 8-1 advantage. 

“They were seeing the whole ball today,” Tlumac said. “They enjoy a pitcher that puts a little more on it and they don’t get under it as much. They follow each other’s lead. Their energy comes from the people in front of them and that carries over onto the field, too.

Molly Nicholson had the Greyhounds’ fourth extra-base hit of the afternoon with a triple to deep right-center to lead off the sixth and touched home on a Monica Austin sacrifice fly to center field.  

“They teed off on the pitching a little bit and we didn’t come out and be aggressive the way we’re capable of playing,” Maranacook coach Don Beckwith said. “We can’t afford to stay back passive. As long as we’re aggressive we’re pretty decent. We didn’t get off the bus really well.” 

The Black Bears (7-10) could muster just five hits off Hill. A double by Tabie Tlumac in the second drove in Kaitlyn Chick to tie the game 1-1 in the second. The Greyhounds responded with eight unanswered before Elise Linton scored on a sacrifice fly for Maranacook’s second run. 

Hill picked up the win in the circle, tossing a complete-game five-hitter. She struck out eight and walked two as the Greyhounds advanced to play top-seeded Madison in the regional quarterfinals Thursday. Lisbon defeated Madison, 9-7, on May 8.

“We are just going to focus on softball,” Hill said of playing Madison. “That’s all we’re going to do and we’re just going to go for it.” 

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