Jamie Glenn/Daily Mining Gazette Hancock’s Payton Dube connects with a pitch from Houghton’s Josie Connors during a doubleheader Thursday at the Hancock Driving Park.

HANCOCK — Rivalries run deep between the Hancock Bulldogs and the Houghton Gremlins, and that matchup shone through in spectacular fashion at the Hancock Driving Park on Thursday. Two evenly-matched softball teams came to win and fought through 16 innings in doubleheader action with Hancock emerging a pair of extra inning, 9-8, victories.

“Well, we hit the ball,” said Bulldogs manager Randy Heinonen. “We hit a couple of home runs and our defense was pretty good.

“We were down early and we came back. We’ve been coming back in games all year and we did it again and that’s how we got the win.”

It was a back and forth battle with both teams coming together at the right moments to string hits together. In the bottom of the second inning of the opener, Houghton’s Josie Connors hit into right field to bring Molly Bugni and Quinn Donnelly home for a short-lived two-run lead.

In the top of the third, the Bulldogs’ Delaney Heinonen hit the ball up and over the fence for a home run, bringing right fielder Marina Kero home as well. Heinonen, who will be joining Finlandia’s softball team next season, displayed power throughout the night.

“Delaney (Heinonen) hit a couple of home runs and just missed another,” said Coach Heinonen. “Our hitting, just in general, we didn’t have great pitching tonight, but our hitting made up for it.”

In the bottom of the fourth, Houghton built a 4-2 lead with help from Ally Ronis who laid down a smart bunt. Hancock tied things up 4-4 at the top of the fifth inning off a hit to center field by Payton Dube, which brought Janie Berg home.

Hancock took a short-lived 7-4 lead until Houghton tied up the game at the bottom of the sixth inning. Molly Bugni came up with a timely, giving Cassidy Becia enough time to slide home, tying the contest at 8-8 and forcing extra innings.

Delaney Heinonen slammed a home run to seal the Bulldogs win in Game One.

“It was two good pitchers and a hard fought battle, but the ball didn’t bounce the way we wanted it to,” said Houghton manager Melissa Baker. “Cassidy Becia had a lot of good plays in the outfield and Josie Connors did a great job pitching. (Mackenzie) Ekdahl did a really good job catching as well.

“We’re both evenly matched teams. There’s always the will to want to beat Hancock, but I think it’s mutual.”

Game Two saw much of the same battle. The game was tied at 4-4 in the top of the fourth inning and again 6-6 at the top of the bottom of the sixth. Donnelly hit a line drive allowing Becia to touch home and give Houghton an 8-6 lead.

The Bulldogs again evened things at 8-8, forcing extra innings again. Connors was looking for one more out in the bottom of the eighth, but Delaney Heinonen hit another homer giving the Bulldogs another win.

“We kept fighting. We went down by a couple of runs and when we needed to, we made some smart base running plays,” said Randy Heinonen “We got some kids on base and then, of course, the big shot by Delaney to win it. She came up to me before the at bat and (asked) if she should move up in the box. (I told her) that was a great idea and she did and then our base runners were close. They didn’t take any chances and she got a pitch to hIt and she hit it.”

Baker was pleased with the efforts of her girls, despite the losses.

“We battled back and then it was a tied game many times and then we had (those) two runs and then the game ended their way instead of ours,” said Baker. “We played tough.”

Both teams will play in the WesPac Tournament on Saturday with Hancock facing the ninth-ranked Negaunee Miners and Houghton facing the L’Anse Purple Hornets.

“We play (in) the WestPac tournament on Saturday and we have L’Anse on Saturday as our first game,” said Baker. “We are going to work on our fielding a little bit (and) hit up our hitting and (run though) a few situations.”

“We play Naganee in the WestPac tournament,” said Heinonen. “They are No. 9 in the state, and we just need to play better still. We need to make less mistakes. We can’t think that all of our home runs are going to make up for all of our mistakes so we have to tighten up, and do things better fundamentally.”