Claremont — It was cold, windy and wet, but first and foremost, it was a win.

Coming off a tough 2-1 loss to Newfound on Wednesday, the Stevens High softball team, trying to climb in the standings as the regular season draws to a close, picked up a crucial 11-5 victory on Thursday afternoon over Kearsarge at soggy Veterans Park.

The Cardinals entered the day in 14th place in NHIAA Division III, which takes 70 percent of its 23 teams to the postseason, or roughly 16, according to Stevens coach Missy Nichols.

A loss on Thursday would have put a lot of pressure on the Cardinals heading into today’s regular season finale at Fall Mountain.

While the umpires changed balls with regularity, it was still a challenge for the pitchers to maintain a grip sometimes. Keararge hurler Rachel Breault walked seven batters and hit another. While Stevens pitcher Madison Lapsley walked only two, she hit three and had one of her pitches slip out of her hand and end up in the second base area.

The loss ended the season for the Cougars at 3-14, but coach Dave Yazzie thinks the future is bright.

“We got our pitcher and catcher (Emily Folcik) coming back and we have a lot of girls in the program,” he said.

While the future may be OK, what happened Thursday wasn’t particularly pleasing to him. “We didn’t hit the ball,” he said. “We’ve got a long way to go.”

Lapsley gave up eight hits with five strikeouts. She was tough with runners on base, as Kearsarge stranded eight runners. She was also tough on Kearsarge’s Caitlin Messer, who she twice hit with pitches.

Nichols used all 15 players on the roster for Stevens’ senior day.

“It was good to get everybody in today,” she said.

Today’s game with Fall Mountain is set for 4 p.m., but rain in the forecast could push the game to Saturday.

While Stevens’ hits were spread out among eight different players, the one big blow was delivered by Marti Milan in the second inning, when she smacked a two-run triple to left field, then scored herself when the relay from the outfield was misplayed.

Stevens really got a grip on the game in the third, when it scored four times on four hits, with Angel Woods, Lapsley, Kate Chambers and Milan driving in runs.

Emma Shea, batting in the eighth slot, was the only Cardinal with two hits in her only two at-bats.

Not to be overlooked was the Stevens defense, which did not make an error. Most impressive was the left side of the infield, with Ryllie Brown at third and Milan at shortstop. Brown particularly was adept at coming in to take away the bunt from the Cougars.

Chambers was tested with some off-the-mark throws at first, but she handled them all flawlessly,

Kearsarge made an attempt to get back in the game in the fifth inning, when the Cougars scored three times as they rapped out four hits, including a Folcik double .

Folcik, Erin Taylor and Shannon Breault all had two hits for the Cougars.