BIDDEFORD — Biddeford High softball pitcher Abbie Paquette was three outs from finally beating Thornton Academy with a three-run lead entering the seventh inning.

Moments later, Keira Fitzgerald was on second representing the tying run.

But Paquette got Hayden Campbell on a soft liner to third to preserve Saturday’s 7-6 win.

“It’s hard to keep your composure when you’re in a tight game like that and I’ve never beaten TA for anything before. Ever. In my four years here,” said Paquette, who has been a starting pitcher for the Tigers since her freshman season. “Softball is my favorite sport, so to be able to do it in my favorite sport and to be able to control the game and the outcome, I thought it was pretty great.”

Biddeford (9-1) used good contact hitting, three stolen bases and two Thornton errors to touch Bailey Tremblay for four runs in the first inning. Brooke Davis and Jocelyn Moody had RBI singles.

“When we play the TAs and the Scarboroughs we need to be aggressive,” Biddeford Coach Ray Magnant said. “Bailey’s one of the best pitchers in the league and we can’t let (her) get ahead of us.”

Kirsten Lebreux took a 2-0 Tremblay fastball over the fence in the second inning for a home run that made it 5-0.

“It was an unbelievable feeling, right off the bat,” Lebreux said.

Through 32/3 innings, Paquette had allowed only one batted ball to reach the outfield while leaving three in scoring position.

Then Campbell’s two-out fly ball was dropped, and Thornton freshman Louisa Colucci hammered a pitch over the left-center fence for a two-run homer.

Thornton (8-2) cut the margin to 5-3 in the fifth. Libby Pomerleau laced a leadoff single and scored on a one-out single by Brooke Cross (3 for 3).

Biddeford got that back in the bottom of the inning – plus one.

Brook Davis, the Tigers’ freshman catcher, turned on a Tremblay fastball for a two-out homer to deep left. It was Davis’ sixth homer of the season.

Moody followed with a single, took second on a wild pitch and scored on a Brittany Roy single.

Thornton got one run back in the sixth when Maizee Lee’s shallow fly toward the left-field line glanced off shortstop Roy’s glove for an RBI single, scoring Campbell.

Paquette threw five straight balls to start the top of the seventh. After Tremblay walked, Cross grounded a hard double down the left-field line to put runners at second and third.

Tremblay scored on Kendall Burns’ sacrifice fly and Cross scored on Fitzgerald’s grounder that was misplayed. Paquette got the next two outs on a grounder to Roy and then the soft liner.

Thornton’s losses have each been by one run. The other was a 4-3 setback at Scarborough.

“We were in a hole but we battled for seven (innings) and had runners on every inning,” Thornton Coach John Provost said. “They made two, actually three, great defensive plays in the early innings to prevent runs. We put some pressure on, kept battling, but they just made more plays today.”