PLAISTOW, N.H. — The Timberlane Regional softball dream of returning to the Division I state championship game for the first time since 2013 is now one win from reality.
Who would have believed it? Well, first-year head coach Kevin Cunningham for one. As the junior varsity coach last spring he got a first-hand look at what was coming.
So, Wednesday’s opening round upset of Windham and Saturday’s 6-3 quarterfinal win over Bedford really weren’t a surprise.
“This has pretty much been our whole team since last year with our JV team. I think they’ve handled their emotions really well, even with how young they are. Their energy has been good all week in practice, and it felt like they were ready today,” said Cunningham.
“They’ve always managed to come up and be ready to play when they’ve needed to. They’ve had a whole year playing together already.
“The chemistry is really strong. Even though we are a little bit on the younger side and we had to replace so much, they’re getting the experience, and I feel like we are playing our best softball at the right time of the season.”
The 11th seeded Owls, now 11-9 after a 1-3 start to the season, rode a crisp, gutsy mound effort from Brooke Salafia, a pair of home runs and some timely defense to knock off No. 14 Bedford.
“We’re just like a family. We deserve this. We’ve been working all season. It’s just what we’ve wanted,” said Salafia.
Dagny Ouellette hit the first of the Timberlane bombs, putting the Owls up 1-0 in the second.
After Bedford tied things up at 1-1, Sam Mooney landed the game-changing blow, a three-run blast to make it 4-1.
“See ball, hit ball. I was just looking for contact, trying to get on base, and I hit it, and there it went,” said Mooney.
The Owls padded their lead with an Ouellette two-out RBI triple in the fifth. The junior then scored on a wild pitch.
Bedford hung tough, but Salafia limited the damage, making quality pitches to extricate the Owls from Bulldog jams.
“I knew I could trust my defense. I threw strikes. I just have a lot of confidence when I’m in the circle,” she said.
Cunningham believes in the young gun whose older sister Alexa was an Eagle-Tribune All-Star in 2024 with the Owls and now pitches at Saint Anselm.
“She’s been our No. 1 all season. The way she’s battle-tested as a sophomore is really impressive,” Cunningham said. “She hit her spots today. They have some girls who can really hit the ball, and the way she was able to get big outs when she needed to and trust her defense was impressive.”
When Timberlane needed it, the defense was there, too.
Mooney, at short, had a nice diving stop on a ball up the middle, somehow shoveling to Ouellette for a force at second. The sophomore also gunned down a runner at the plate on a relay with catcher Audrina Cordeiro making the sweet scoop-and-tag.
And first baseman Maddi Shute ended the game and Bedford’s season, converting a lineout into an unassisted double play in the seventh.
“I love this team. I believe in everybody that’s on this field,” said Mooney. “This is amazing. At the beginning of the season, I would never have imagined it, but I believe in this team.”