This one was different.

Aberdeen Central has won softball games in the past, but none quite like the one the Golden Eagles pulled off on Monday afternoon at the Aberdeen Dome. Central, motived by seniors Kylee Hoffman and Addison Ward, held off O’Gorman for a 5-4 non-conference victory.

“It feels like butterflies in your stomach. It feels surreal,” said Central starting pitcher Kaylee Kiesow. “We’ve been trying to beat these Sioux Falls teams and we feel defeated when they beat us, because we know they have so much opportunities, so it feels great to finally do it.”

Central coach Cassidy Neer noted that on paper the Golden Eagles were major underdogs against the visiting Knights.

“The statistics were not in our favor. We always say you can beat anybody any day and my girls didn’t beat O’Gorman playing a bad game,” Neer said. “We beat them playing our best game and it was better than their best game today. I don’t think either team played bad, and so that was really cool to see.”

Those on the Central side said the biggest factor on the day was playing for the team’s two seniors, who have been with the program for its three years of existence.

“I think we went out there and we were like we want to win for our seniors,” Kiesow said. “We want to do this for them. We love them, so we brought it and then we kept it going.”

After falling behind early, Central came to life offensively in the bottom of the second inning, scoring three runs. An error accounted for the first run, before Aliyah Torigian and Kiesow connected for back-to-back RBI doubles.

“I just went up there and thought I’ve got to show up for my seniors. This is my last year of playing with them. You never know how the game will go unless you give it your all,” Torigian said. “So I went up there and I said I’m going to get the first hit and that’s exactly what I did.”

That three-run frame helped to set the tone for the rest of the contest.

“It was a lot of fun,” Kiesow said. “Aliyah got that going and then just kept the energy rolling. That’s what we had to do.”

O’Gorman tied the score in top for the third on the second home run of the game from Sonia Deckert, but Central responded with two more runs in the bottom of the frame for a lead it never lost.

This time Ward and Jovee Waldo produced run-scoring hits for the Golden Eagles.

Torigian said hitting can be contagious.

“If somebody gets a hit, the next person will get a hit,” Torigian said. “It was one after another after another.”

Kiesow also settled down after giving up a pair of home runs.

“I think when that happens you just learn and see which batters you really need to throw out of the zone and make sure there’s nothing left hanging for them,” Kiesow said. “That’s kind of what I did.”

Kiesow also got a lift from her defense, as Addyson Keller made sparkling catch behind second base and Central also turned a double play in the top of the seventh inning.

“That is definitely the best we’ve ever played. … I think it was our Senior Night,” Torigian said. “We really had something to motivate us. We wanted to come out with a bang and we did.”

The double play sent Neer on to the field prematurely thinking the game was over, and cost a quick pitching change for her second mound visit in the inning, but Kiesow reentered the circle after just one pitch and the Golden Eagles eventually recorded for the final out for the victory.

“That was 100 percent my mistake,” Neer said, “and I would do it again.”

Like her players, Neer said there was extra motivation playing for the seniors.

“Leaving it out on the field for our seniors I think is a big deal. Those seniors have been with us since the beginning,” Neer said. “Hof and Addison, they deserve the world from our girls and we gave them everything that I think a Senior Day could have entailed today.”

Central, which hosts top-seeded Harrisburg at 4 this afternoon inside the dome, definitely improved its chances of getting into the postseason with the win over eighth-seeded OG.

“It’s really going to shake things up,” Neer said. “We’re sitting in that 17th spot right now, but having a win against a team in the eighth spot … that really could really shake things up and let us scratch into a SoDak 16 game there.”

O’Gorman 102 000 1 – 4 9 2

Aberdeen Central 032 000 x – 5 6 2

Mary Koch and Lucy Kappel; Kaylee Kiesow, Kylee Hoffman (7), Kiesow and Alivia Roettele. 2B – Aberdeen Central, Aliyah Torigian, Kiesow. HR – O’Gorman, Sonia Deckert 2.