The Cardinals celebrate as they wait to greet Gabby Gillette (not shown) at home plate after one of her two homers in BG's 5-2 Division I quarterfinal win at Windham on Sunday evening. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

WINDHAM – They’ve got that 2024 feeling all over again.

But this year, the Bishop Guertin High School softball team may be even better than last year’s squad that went into the Division I tourney as an 11th seed and went all the way to the finals.

This year, they’re one win away from another appearance in the title game, this time as a No.7 seed as they upset No. 2 Windham 5-2 on Sunday.

“I love it,” said Guertin’s Gabby Gillette, whose first-pitch homer in the sixth tied the game at 2 and whose second homer in the seventh, both solo shots, gave the Cards (15-5) an insurance run. “It was an amazing season last year and it’s been an amazing season this year and I’m ready to go to the championship.”

But to do that, the Cards will have to get by No. 3 Pinkerton in the semifinals on Wednesday at 5 p.m. at Plymouth State University’s Chase Field.

The Cards fell to Pinkerton 5-2 three weeks ago, but remember, they lost to Windham 7-2 here back on May 1. That game may have been a blessing in disguise.

“We lost here earlier in the season and that was a tough game for us,” Cards coach Dakota Bilodeau said. “We learned a lot that game. When we were in left field (after that loss), I said, ‘Hey, we’re going to see them again, and we don’t want to feel like this again.’ I think that was a really big motivating factor.”

Guertin got an RBI single by Gillette in the first inning for the early lead but the Jaguars took advantage of some sloppy BG fielding in the bottom half to grab a 2-1 lead. Ari DeCotis doubled in a run and Kate Ballard blooped a hit for a 2-1 Jags lead. And it stayed that way seemingly forever as both teams missed opportunities. But BG pitcher Jenny Davey only gave up five hits and no earned runs over seven.

“We didn’t let those runs get us down,” Bilodeau said. “We knew they were a good hitting team and put balls in play. … Jenny pitched awesome. She did a great job hitting her spots. … Dee (Miles) did an awesome job behind the plate making all that happen. And the defense did its job at the end of the day.”

Gillette’s leadoff homer to left tied the game at 2 in the sixth, but the Cards weren’t done that inning as they sent nine to the plate. Two hits and an error loaded the bases with nobody out and two RBI groundouts off the bats of Avery Zapenas and Kailey Olesak gave the Cards a 4-2 lead.

“Their balls found places to fall in and ours seemed to not,” Jags coach Brian Martin said. “We had three balls at the fence another two feet they’re home runs.”

But those belonged to Gillette, first off Jags starter Claire Ballard and the second off reliever Kelly Wright.

“I usually try to attack early and I love the inside,” Gillette said of her homers. “Anything barrel-able. I know they were throwing inside and I just like to get on it. Same with the second one. I thought they were similar and I was just looking for a hard grounder and look what happened.”

“She’s definitely putting it together,” Bilodeau said.

And the Cards seem to feed off of that.

“In general, we all think about our energy,” Gillette said, “and we try to never let it drop. … We wanted this one.”

They got it, and will simply move on to the next one.

“One game at a time,” Bilodeau said. “This is a real special group and we’re having just a lot of fun together.”