The bats for the Mills softball team come alive, scoring 25 runs on 28 hits in a 25-11 rout of Aragon

This time, the Vikings were locked in at the plate. After a slow start that saw it trailing 5-1 after two innings, Mills came roaring back. The Vikings scored eight runs in the third, nine in the fourth and seven in the sixth as they posted an impressive 25-11 win over the Dons.

“We haven’t been doing well. We were in a slump,” said Lucy Esquivel, Mills’ centerfielder. “I would say I was surprised (with the offensive outburst). But every game is different.”

Esquivel was a key contributor in a Mills batting order that saw everyone collect at least one hit and seven of 10 batters pick up an RBI as Mills (1-2 PAL Bay, 6-3 overall) banged out 28 hits, with a homer, triple and two doubles as the Vikings made hard, loud contact all game long.

Esquivel, hitting in the No. 2 spot, went 5 for 6, with a double, homer, five RBIs and three runs scored. And she wasn’t the only one with a fat stat line. Leadoff hitter, Jazzy Maske, went 4 for 6 with four RBIs and three runs scored; Sydney Chu and Jolie Wong, the Nos. 8 and 9 hitters in the order, both drove in three runs and had three hits each. Elise Jang and Gina Hillman — and Hillman’s replacement at third base, Alyssa Penas — all had two RBIs each. Isabel Chen, a freshman pitcher who earned the win in relief, helped her cause with an RBI, as well.

“During the first 12-day break, we were just going with the flow. Spring Break told us what we were doing wasn’t working,” said Mills head coach Michelle Beauchemin. “We worked a lot during Spring Break. … We did an intrasquad scrimmage Monday. We put runners on base to work on situational things.”

But things did not start well for the Vikings. They stranded Chen at second after a two-out double in the top of the first and Aragon needed just four pitches to take a 1-0 lead as Taylor Workman led off the bottom of the first with a solo shot just to the right of center field.

That was followed by a walk to Alliyah Adle before Olivia Mukherjee drilled a two-run homer to nearly the same spot as Workman’s as Aragon (3-1, 9-7) took a quick 3-0 lead.

Mills got on the scoreboard in the top of the second when Bailey Beauchemin reached on an error, went to second on Jang single and scored on Chu’s opposite-field single to right to plate Beauchemin.

But the Dons answered right back, with two more runs in the bottom of the second. Makayla Hafoka and Zoe Farrigan drew back-to-back walks to open the inning before Workman picked up her second RBI of the game on a single to center to drive in Hafoka. Farrigan then came in to score on a Chloe Wan infield hit to give the Dons a seemingly comfortable 5-1 lead.

And then the Vikings’ bats came alive. Maske singled to lead off the top of the third, followed by Esquivel — who hit what appeared to be an easy fly ball to the outfield. But neither the Aragon centerfielder or rightfielder called the other off, neither made the catch as the ball fell between them and Esquivel boogied all the way around the bases for a two-run homer.

“I was just trying to get something going,” Esquivel said.

Mills proceeded to load the bases and then got a third run when Jang was hit by a pitch. That was followed by a Hillman two-run single to left, Wong had a two-run double and Esquivel later collected her third RBI of the inning as the Vikings sent 13 batters to the plate, rapped out nine hits and scored eight runs to take a 9-5 lead.

It was more of the same in the fourth as Mills scored nine runs on nine hits as the Vikings sent 14 batters to the plate. Maske and Esquivel each drove in two runs in the inning, with Esquivel just missing a legitimate home run, instead settling for a two-run triple. Chen drove in a run on a groundout, Hillman drove in a run and then later in the inning, Penas added pinch-hit, two-run single as the Vikings increased their lead to 18-5 and were looking to finish off a mercy-rule win.

But the Dons, to their credit, did not go down without a fight. Aragon extended the game by scoring four runs in the bottom of the fourth. Wan drove in a run with a bases-loaded walk, Natalie Jia had a groundout RBI before Mukherjee came through with two-run single to cut the Vikings’ lead to nine, 18-9.

Mills was held to just an Esquivel single in the fifth before battering the Aragon pitching staff again in the top of the sixth, scoring six more runs and sending 12 more batters to plate. Maske collected two more RBIs, Esquivel got her fifth RBI of the game, with Chu, Wong and Jang each driving in a run, as well, as the Vikings extended their lead to 25-9.

Again, Aragon kept grinding. Jia picked up her second RBI of game, while Mukherjee collected her third as the Dons scored two more runs before Chen finally closed them out.

“We’ve alway been an underdog team,” Esquivel said. “(But) I knew we had the potential to do something like this.”