Souhegan's Brody Smith beats the throw to Hollis Brookline's Marco Bergskaug in stealing second, a key play in the Sabers' 2-1 Division II quarterfinal win over Hollis Brookline in Hollis. (Telegaph photo by TOM KING)

HOLLIS — Team 34 is in the Final Four.

That’s not unusual for a Division II defending champion, but after losing twice to Hollis Brookline during the regular season, the No. 1 Cavaliers were certainly the favorites over No.8 Souhegan in Saturday’s quarterfinals.

But that’s why they play the games. The spectator area at the Hollis-Brookline baseball field was filled to capacity, and the fans saw a classic pitchers duel, with Souhegan edging out the Cavaliers 2-1 when Brody Smith scored on a throwing error in the fifth inning.

Now Souhegan (13-6) heads to Concord on Wednesday to take on No. 4 St. Thomas a 7 p.m. in the semifinals.

“We played a full seven innings tonight.” Souhegan coach Chris Metz said. “Our first full seven inning game we played all year. We’ve been so close all year long, and we finally we put it together tonight.”

Alex Trudel took the bump for Souhegan — nicknamed ‘Team 34′ for the program’s 34th season — with his opponent being Hollis-Brookline’s ace, Ian Sinclair. The two pitchers ran into trouble early. Hollis-Brookline’s Matt Bergen mashed a no-doubt home run to left-centerfield, giving the Cavaliers an early 1-0 lead.

An inning later, the equalizer came from Souhegan’s Carter Glines, who scored on a Brody Smith (2 for 3, RBI, run) single.

The deadlock would persist until the top of the fifth inning, when Smith singled, stole second, advanced to third on an errant throw, and scored on another throwing error, putting Souhegan up 2-1.

But it wasn’t easy keeping it that way.

In the bottom of the seventh inning, Trudel was pulled after a couple of baserunners. Blake Powers came on to attempt to earn the save. With runners on second and third, and one out, Powers came in clutch, striking out both batters he faced to send Souhegan onto the semifinals.

Trudel went 6.2 innings allowing just the one run on five hits while striking out a whopping 13 Cavaliers, walking just two.

“Alex Trudel, earlier in the week, he was like,’I want seven coach, I want seven, I want this’,” Metz said. “And you know he came out only because of his pitch count. But he showed tonight, and then when we put pressure on them tonight, we got our two runs, that’s how we put pressure on them, and with our speed and we score our two runs, and then Alex, there’s a reason why he’s he’s our guy.”-

Souhegan baseball players celebrate with Brody Smith (4) after he scored what became the game-winning run in Saturday’s Division II quarterinals at Hollis Brookline. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

It had to be a tough blow for the 16-2 Cavaliers, who had cruised through most of the regular season.

“We were hoping to push through this year, but we knew we were young,” said Brookline-Hollis Head Coach Alex Pratt, “We had one senior in our starting lineup. So we’ll see what happens next year, but we’re going to just put it in the work.”

And the Sabers?

“Well, we’re going to celebrate this one until midnight tonight,” Metz said, “and then we’ll start thinking about St. Thomas tomorrow morning.”