SOUTH BERWICK — Emily Robida’s strong pitching was on the verge of being wasted because of four errors in the seventh inning Thursday.

Rather than get down on her fielders, Robida looked to her Marshwood High softball teammates for inspiration, she said.

Then she stranded two runners in scoring position and secured the final two outs in a season-opening 5-4 win against short-handed McAuley.

“I was pretty stressed and I just looked at my third baseman (Joelle Casey), and that got me calmed down and in a better mental state,” Robida said. “I knew I had my teammates by my side.”

For six innings, the Hawks handled McAuley’s combination of bunting and aggressive baserunning and built a 5-1 lead.

But in the seventh, Marshwood made three errors while fielding bunts, dropped a fly to right and didn’t communicate on another bunt, allowing Ally Tillotson to reach with a single.

Those plays cut Marshwood’s once-comfortable lead to 5-4, with Trix Li at second base and McAuley’s best hitter, Taylor Whaley, at the plate.

“Our philosophy is put the ball in play and make them make plays,” McAuley Coach Dawn Armandi said. “That’s exactly why bunting is so important to us. We bunted two or three times in that last inning and it got us three runs.”

Whaley rapped her fourth straight hit sharply to left field. Li was held at third, with Whaley moving up to second on the throw home.

And that’s where they stayed.

Casey made a good play to throw out Lillie Donovan on a grounder, with Li again holding.

Robida finished the game with a called third strike, her 10th strikeout of the game without allowing a walk.

“I knew she was going to be strong mentally. She’s always shown that,” Marshwood Coach Chris Leclerc said. “It was a good thing to have her win it for herself on that last batter. It’s always good to know your defense is behind you, but when you win it for yourself as a pitcher, that’s a good thing.”

Prior to the seventh, Marshwood played well defensively and piled up 12 hits against Whaley (four innings, four runs) and freshman reliever Anya Chase (two innings).

Robida (3 for 3) started the offense with a long triple to right and scored on Casey’s sharp single in the second.

McAuley tied it in the third. Chase singled to lead off, advanced to second on a sacrifice and scored on the first of Whaley’s two doubles.

The Hawks scored three runs in the fourth. Robida led off with a double and Gray (RBI), Jill Marcus (RBI), and freshmen Elora Montgomery and Molly Glidden (RBI) added singles.

Gianna Ricciardi scored the Hawks’ final run on a wild pitch in the fifth after a triple.

“As a coaching staff, we certainly start off with the positive and tell them all the things they did right, but we need to focus on those little things that we did not execute properly,” Leclerc said. “Yeah, I guess most of our focus will be on fixing those little things, and then everything else will fall into place.”