Alvirne Skye Merrow, right, celebrates her home runs Wednesday with teammate Cori Sevigny during the Broncos' 11-3 Divison I prelim win over Pinkerton in Derry. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

DERRY – Dakota Bilodeau had seen enough after two innings Wednesday and huddled up her Alvirne High School softball team.

The message: Swing the bats.

The No. 10 Broncos got it loud and clear, and responded with 13 hits in an 11-3 Divison I preliminary round win over the No. 7 Astros.

“Attack good pitches early,” Bilodeau said she told her team. “They have a real good pitcher (starter Madison Cunha), and she was putting them in the zone. We just had to start swinging aggressive just a little bit sooner. And it came together.”

Alvirne (12-7) has now won eight of nine and, as Bilodeau said, “We found our groove and are just rolling with it.” That groove will be tested when they travel to face No. 2 defending champion Exeter in the quarterfinals.

But on Wednesday, the Broncos were led by Faith Cestrone and Skye Merrow. Cestrone had four hits, including a triple, and five RBIs while all Merrow did was start a four-run fourth inning with a home run to right center – there’s no fence there, so the ball rolled forever on the artificial turf– and also pitched the final five innings to get the win.

“Coach is always telling us ‘Right-center field, right center field,’ so we work on that a lot in practice,” Merrow said. “And the setup here with no fence, it just makes it easier to hit a gap.”

Later in the inning, Alvirne took advantage of a walk, bunt single, error, fielder’s choice and a Cestrone RBI single to get a 4-1 lead.

They added three more on a Cestrone bases-clearing triple in the fifth that chased Cunha, got a two-run homer by Cori Sevigny on a similar right field long ball roller in the sixth and added two more in the seventh (Jenna Kulik triple, fielder’s choice, Cestrone RBI single).

“We talk about the energy bus, and who’s going to drive it,” Bilodeau said. “I would say those two (Cestrone and Merrow) definitely drove our energy bus today. They’re two senior leaders, rallied the troops, and we couldn’t have asked for more.”

Alvirne’s Madison Bradish slides safely home while Pinkerton catcher Madalyn Moore tries to snare the throw duirng Wednesday’s Division I prelim game in Derry. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

“They out-hit us and out-pitched us,” Pinkerton coach Tom Wall said.

Meanwhile Morrow had only one bad inning of her five. Pinkerton (13-6), which scratched one run off Alvirne starter Mackenzie Pooler in the first, got two more off Merrow in the sixth, a single that got by Broncos center fielder Jaelyn Green for a three-base error off the bat of Madison Schoenenberger, and an RBI single by Emma Boucher.

And now they head to face the Blue Hawks, returning to the scene of a 10-2 loss in late April. But that seems like ages ago.

“I think we have a good shot,” Merrow said. “If we bring it the same way we brought it today, I think we could (win) that game.”