The Wallkill softball team’s seniors went home happy on Thursday’s Senior Day as they kept their hopes for a Section 9 Class AA tournament berth alive with an 11-2 win over the Highland Huskies at Wallkill Senior High School.

Although not a senior, Gianna Allessandro was a big reason for the victory as she blasted a three-run double to left field during the Panthers’ nine-run fourth inning.

“It really got us going,” Allessandro said. “It got us in the game and made us want to win more for the seniors.”

Before the game, the Panthers honored their seniors: Gabby Faia, Sarah White, Sarah Mulligan and Elysia Villafane.

White also had a big blow in the inning with a two-run double.

“Hitting is contagious,” Wallkill coach Sean Murphy said. “It starts as a little drip and then once somebody opens that faucet up, it’s just really hard to stop.

We got rolling and we started feeling really good in the box. We started putting the ball in play and some magic happened.”

The magic came from some defensive trouble on the Huskies’ part.

With one out in the fifth inning and Wallkill’s Ella Rydell on second base, Grace Rodriguez hit a ground ball to shortstop, and Highland’s Emma Hanlon scooped the ball and made a pump fake to first base. That was enough to get Rydell to break toward third base, but second baseman Abby Paserba couldn’t handle the throw and the Panthers had one more base runner and the Huskies didn’t get an out.

Highland pitcher Alexa Pavese walked her Wallkill counterpart Emma Hunt to load the bases and Charley Callahan gave the Panthers the lead with an RBI single to left field.

Then, Allessandro cleared the bases, giving the Panthers a 6-2 lead.

“(I was just looking) to get RBIs,” Allessandro said. “I just wanted to make sure that I put it in play so we could score and get the lead. That just pretty much got the team riled up.”

Wallkill wasn’t done as singles by Elysia Villafane and Gabriela Faia re-leaded the bases and Sarah White delivered a two-run double, and Kasey Garzione’s sacrifice fly gave the Panthers a 9-2 lead. White took third on the throw and then scored when catcher Delainey Reid’s throw went into left field.

Rydell scored her second run of the inning when Rodriguez reached on an error.

The Panthers took the lead early when they loaded the bases with nobody out in the second inning. However, Pavese limited the damage as Wallkill’s two runs came on groundouts by Garzione and Rydell.

The Huskies tied the game in the fourth inning on Gianna Jones’ two-run single.

That was all Hunt would allow as she finished allowing only four hits and struck out seven.

“She was just hitting all her spots,” Allessandro said. “Everything I was calling, she was hitting my glove.”

The Panthers finished the week with a road game against the Washingtonville Wizards.

They finished the regular season this week with non-league games against the Spackenkill Spartans and the Ellenville Blue Devils.

“I feel like this really got us going and we just need to win every game here on out to make it to the playoffs,” Allessandro said. “So, I think we’re in a really good spot right now.”