They had only player named to the Division II All State First Team and they felt overlooked all season. But at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Pembroke Academy will play for the D-II championship as it makes the first appearance in the softball final in school history.
“We’re the scrappy kids from Pembroke, that’s what I’ve said all year,” PA Coach Ashley Gladu said. “No one really looked at us. It was like, ‘Oh, they’re not a strong team.’ Well, we’re a pretty damn strong team.”
And the Spartans are getting stronger at just the right time. No. 6 Pembroke (15-4) will be looking for its 12th straight win when it meets another set of Spartans on Saturday night, No. 4 Milford (17-3), the defending champs. Both teams used one-run wins to survive the semifinals – Pembroke with a 2-1 decision over No. 2 Goffstown and Milford with a 5-4 win against No. 1 Souhegan.
Pembroke has not played Milford this season, but that’s the only team among the top nine seeds in D-II that PA hasn’t seen. The results have been impressive against the cream of the division’s crop for Pembroke, which is 7-2 against those top nine teams and has gone 4-0 against the top three (Souhegan, Goffstown and Pelham) in the last three weeks.
“We’re playing our best softball right now,” Gladu said. “And throughout the year we’ve had a very tough schedule, and I think that’s made us better.”
But Pembroke had to take some lumps before it got better. After opening the season with a pair of wins, the team lost three straight and scored just five runs in those losses.
“We’ve definitely improved,” PA pitcher Stephanie Berube said. “Our bats were not alive at the beginning of the season, and then after going on a three-game losing streak, we kind of (woke up) and just started hitting the ball.”
Indeed. Pembroke is averaging 6.8 runs per game and had scored at least four runs in 13 straight games before Thursday’s semifinal victory. Berube, a Second-Team D-II selection, showed that PA also knows how to pitch with her performance against Goffstown on Thursday. The only run she gave up was unearned.
While the bats have come around and Berube provides a presence in the circle, Pembroke’s true strength is defense. Junior shortstop Olivia Langevin, PA’s only First-Team D-II pick, leads that defense, but she gets plenty of help from freshman third baseman Olivia McCarty and catcher Briana Connolly (Second Team D-II).
“Defense is our backbone,” Gladu said. “We have an all-around great team defense, but our left side is definitely our strong side.”
PA will need all three phases of its game working against Milford. Those Spartans had five players selected to the D-II First Team, including pitcher Delaney Parker, who gave up five hits and struck out three in the semifinals, and infielder Jen Carson, who had a two-out, two-run single to cap a key, four-run fourth inning in Thursday’s win against top-seeded Souhegan.
“We have to get our bats going more than we did in the (semifinals),” said Connolly, who was 2-for-3 and scored both of Pembroke’s runs in the win against Goffstown. “And I think that if we get our bats going and play flawless softball, then we’ll be able to pull out a win.”
Pembroke may have never played in a title game before, but the team has made it to three of the last four semifinals, so these players understand what it means to perform on the big stage.
“I think I’m ready for the championship,” Berube said. “I might be a little nervous, but I think we can handle it.”
(Tim O’Sullivan can be reached at 369-3341 or tosullivan@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @timosullivan20.)