"It was hard to lose a game in this tournament, but we knew we had come back and won before so we could do it again," said sophomore pitcher Allison Benning. "We needed to take things one pitch at a time, one inning at a time."

That strategy allowed the Ponies to ride big innings to their victories. Stillwater scored six runs in the sixth inning in the first game to break open a tight contest, then sent 12 batters to the plate to score nine times in the third inning of the second game.

"When we relax, those are the types of innings we can have," Ponies coach Bob Beedle said. "Hitting is contagious, and momentum is important in sports. I think our top four hitters are the best one-through-four in the state at any level."

The top of the Stillwater lineup had a field day Thursday. Leadoff batter Torri Chute went 6-for-8 in the doubleheader, cranking three home runs in the second game and also belting two doubles, while Benning, hitting third, was 5-for-10 with two homers in the second contest. They combined with senior Ani Bell, the second batter, and freshman Cat Smetana, the cleanup hitter, to go 21-for-37 (.568) with five home runs and three doubles, 16 runs scored and 13 RBI.

"They hit for so much power, one through nine," Cretin-Derham Hall coach Patrick Bowlin said. "And they do it on different pitches: inside, outside, fastball, rise ball, change-up. You name it, we threw it at them. And they landed over the fence."

Despite the run barrage, Stillwater had just two runs through the first five innings of the first game. But they led 2-1 entering the sixth because Benning was outstanding in the circle, allowing just three hits and one unearned run to earn the complete-game victory.

"She had pretty good command of her pitches and kept them off-balance," Beedle said of Benning. "She kept us in the game until we could relax and let our talent take over."

Benning said she didn't worry when the Ponies only managed to scratch out two runs in the first five innings.

"I was really focused on Torri's glove," Benning said. "I knew we could score runs, so I was comfortable throwing pitches and getting out."

Chute said the loss early in the tournament helped her battery mate focus on the job at hand.

"After that loss [earlier in the tournament], Allison came back with a ton of fire," Chute said. "I had 100 percent confidence in her, and I had zero doubt she would pitch well."

In the sixth inning of the first game Stillwater sent 10 batters to the plate and scored six runs thanks to four hits, including a two-run single by Benning, a walk, a hit batsman and two Raider errors.

"Before the game we had a talk, and we said we needed to have energy — the team that has the most energy is going to win," Chute said. "So we came out with a ton of energy. And after the first game, we said, 'We won the first game, so why not win the second?'"

The second game was scoreless until Chute started the third inning with a long home run to straight-away center.

"Before the first home run, I heard them say, 'C'mon, shoot,' and I knew that was the key word for a change-up," Chute said. "So I sat on the change-up and tried to hit the ball as hard as I could — and it went out of the park."

That opened the floodgates for a nine-run Stillwater barrage that included a two-run homer by Benning, a two-run double by Keira Murphy and a rally-capping two-run homer by Chute.

Cretin-Derham Hall (8-17) could have folded at that point, but instead the Raiders rebounded with a three-run fourth inning keyed by a Kenna Lexau RBI double.

Chute's third homer of the game, a two-run shot in the fifth, and a two-run rally in the sixth had the Raiders on the verge of getting run-ruled.

But with two outs in the bottom of the sixth, Cretin-Derham Hall stayed alive thanks to a three-run homer by Allie Reding, the Raiders' first home run this season.

"We've shown that [resiliency] all season, especially in this tournament when we scored four runs late to beat them and had a two-run comeback to beat Roseville," Bowlin said. "We're a team that doesn't give up."

But Benning followed a seventh-inning double by Chute by cranking her second home run of the game, and the Ponies (18-9) added another run to finish with 20 hits in the second game and 35 hits in the doubleheader.