Bishop Guertin's Torey Hart slides into home ahead of the tag by Nashua South's Lizzie DeRusha during the Cards' 9-0 win Wednesday at South. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – The Bishop Guertin High School softball team is coming of age – literally.

For the first time in a few years under head coach Leah Maciejewski, the Cardinal roster finally has upperclassmen as the majority. And it’s no wonder that they have just concluded their best week(3-0) during that span with a 9-0 win Wednesday over city rival Nashua South.

“We’ve been kind of teetering in terms of our potential, where we should be all season,” Maciejewski said, her team now 4-3. “This is the first year in a long time when we’re not the majority of underclassmen. … They’ve been doing a great job with everything that’s been thrown at them, and they’ve been really growing as a group.”

Actually an underclassman did proved the Cardinals with their big spark – sophomore Bailey Doyle. She scattered six hits, struck out only three but did not walk a single hitter in a complete game effort.

“I have to give everything to my defense, they were behind me making play all the time,” Doyle said. “I was able to hit my spots, and they were able to make plays.”

“She’s a sophomore, and this is her first season playing for BG,” Maciejewski said. “But it doesn’t look like it when she’s out there.”

“The pitcher did a good job,” South coach Kevin Handy said. “I was watching film on these guys against Londonderry even the first week, this is a good team. … It’s one of the fastest teams in the state. When they get on, they’re running, their first five batters. Absolutely a competitive team.”

The top five hitters in BG’s lineup – Petra Bajdek, Torey Hart, Stephanie Coulombe, Maddy Bowen and Doyle reached base safely a combined 15 times in the game. They were highlighted by Bajdek’s leadoff triple, scoring in the first on a Bowen single, and in the Cards’ three-run third Bajdek drove in a run with a triple and just beat a throw home after the ball got through.

South (1-5) committed four errors, and Panthers starting pitcher Natalie Ward walked six but also pitched out of a couple of jams, and struck out 10.

“Natalie’s pitched for us for a few years but this is her first year being the main kind of ace,” Handy said. “She’s working through some stuff but she’s a lot better than Monday and she competed out there.”

Guertin’s other three-run frame was in the sixth, a Doyle sac fly and two-run single by Alex Nutting.

Handy was happy with the positive that the Cards never had that big inning to break things wide, wide open.

“We gave ourselves an opportunity,” he said. “By the third inning on Monday it was a 10-0 game. We held them off for a little bit there, for sure.”

But this year, the Cards, for the first time since they won the title in 2017, can break through just enough.