Bishop Guertin catcher Deeana Miles tags out Merrimack's Ashley Senecal at home during Thursday's Division I clash at Elliott Field. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – Pitching and defense is always the big key in softball at any level.

But it’s nice to have a little offense, too.

The Merrimack High School Tomahawks reaped the benefits of just that on Thursday as their bats (13 hits) were booming in a 12-4 win over local rival Bishop Guertin.

And at 9-2, with close losses only to the top to Division I contenders Londonderry and Pinkerton, they’re looking pretty darn good.

“All year it’s been our defense, we concentrate defense, defense, defense,” Merrimack coach Steve Yabroudy said. “We’ve been hitting the ball hard, just right at people. And today they’ve been falling in, just so happy for them. Good group of kids.”

Katherine Coolidge led the attack going 4 for 4 with two homers and five RBIs, not quite what you’d expect from a No. 8 hitter in the lineup.

“I’d say the last five games she’s batting like.700,” Yabroudy said. “She’s just been crushing the ball. And the kid always has a freaking smile.She was not batting well in the beginning of the year, and she just turned it on.”

“I was just trying to battle,” the senior catcher Coolidge said of her big day. “I got low in the count a few times. We had runners on, I was just trying to get my bat on the ball.

“Our defense is good; sometimes our bats are slow but today they were good.”

Of course, that was much to the chagrin of the the Cards (6-4), who saw their three-game win streak snapped.

“Totally, that was exactly the difference,” BG coach Dakota Bilodeau said. “They hit, we didn’t. … Sometimes that’s just the difference in high school softball.

Guertin was held to four hits, three of them impactful – two homers by Chloe Sellers (three RBIs) and an RBI double by Avery Zapanas. But they couldn’t really string much together against Tomahawks complete game pitcher Marissa Nelson, who struck out 13 and walked just two. She’s headed to Wheaton College next year and yes, she will play softball. But first she wants to close out a great Tomahawk career in the circle and had the Guertin hitters swinging out of the zone at times.

“Usually my screwball’s my best pitch,” Nelson said. “I know I can get people out on that. They see it coming, spinning up, so anytime I can raise it above their head and get them to swing I’m very happy.”

“She had a great outside pitch,” Bilodeau said. “Looked like a curveball to me. She threw well.”

Sellers first homer, a rope to center that didn’t take long to get out, gave BG a 1-0 lead in the first, but it was short lived as Merrimack bounced right back against Sellers, the first of three BG pitchers, with two unearned runs in the second. They added two more on Coolidge’s first homer and an RBI double by Nelson in the fourth, then broke it open (8-1) with four in the fifth, the key blow a Coolidge RBI hit. Up 8-4, the ‘Hawks sealed the deal with four more in the seventh, the inning started by Coolidge’s second round-tripper.

Merrimack softball players greet Katherine Coolidge at home plate after her second homer in a 12-4 win over BG at Elliott Field on Thursday. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

Keep you’re eyes on the ‘Hawks, especially if they can hit like this over the next, well, month.

“The thing is the defense has been keeping them in every game when we’ve been struggling trying to get runs across, ” Yabroudy said. “It was awesome.”

And the Cards? Remember, Bilodeau always seems to have them playing at their best down the stretch, if you remember the tourney runs of 2024 (finals) and last year (semis).

“We’re young, we’ve got some good games coming up, we just want to keep competing,” she said. “We want to play our best softball at the end of May and early June. These kids have gotten a lot better since Day 1. Today was an off-hitting day for us, we just didn’t make adjustments fast enough. Sometimes that’s just the game.”

And there’s plenty more games to go.