Her drive toward deep left in the second inning felt good when it left the bat. As the senior catcher was supposed to be focused on running the bases, it was too tempting to keep an eye on her hit. Beck stopped watching when it landed on the other side of the left-centerfield fence.

“I’ve never hit one like that before,” Beck said of her two-run homer. “I’ve never hit a home run before. I could feel it off the bat. I knew it was a good hit. I just didn’t really know if  it was going to be that good.”

Beck’s shot doubled Monmouth’s lead Tuesday and the Mustangs’ early advantage held up in a 7-4 win over Lisbon in their Western C preliminary.

Monmouth advances to Thursday’s quarterfinal at second-seeded Hall-Dale. The Mustangs lost in the prelims last year.

“We all wanted to improve on what we did last year,” Beck said. “This year, we’ve had a lot of good positive energy. That helped us a lot to go further than we did last year.”

Monmouth went ahead 4-0 on Beck’s homer. The Mustangs were up by as many as five at 6-1. Lisbon tried to rally but couldn’t produce the kind of momentum-swinging hit that Beck did.

“We settled in per usual,” Lisbon coach Terri Trudell said. “We battled back and battled back and chipped away. We just couldn’t get that timely hit still. In two innings, we had bases loaded and we couldn’t get that timely hit. We couldn’t put it in play.”

Monmouth pitchers Paxton Lessard and Becki Bryant combined to hold the Greyhounds (6-11) to just six hits. Lisbon also stranded 10. Olivia Harrington and Arianna Kahler each had two hits for Lisbon while Kailyn Hill and Jasmin Le had the others.

“I’ve got two veteran pitchers,” Monmouth coach Dave Kaplan said. “They get tough when it gets tough. They got really tough when they needed to. They were able to bear down.”

Monmouth (11-6) got two hits from Kylie Kemp. Beck had the one hit and two RBI while Shannon Buzzell, Haley Fletcher and Lessard each drove in a run with a hit.

Lisbon, with only two seniors, looked nervous early and it showed in the field in the first.  With the bases loaded and a routine force play at the plate, an easy grounder by Bryant was thrown away, allowing Kemp and Caroline Bonenfant to score.

Then in the second, Beck hit her two-run homer for the 4-0 lead.

“It was right at my letters, right down the middle,” Beck said. “It was really a good pitch to hit.

“That really brought up our energy. I think it helped us when we got into some tough innings. It helped us pull through when we could have broken down. We stayed strong.”

Lisbon got one back when Harrington scored on a wild pitch in the third. Lisbon had the bases loaded but only got the one run.

“As funny as it sounds, I think  we were just too aggressive at the plate and not being patient,” Trudell said. “We were popping up in our first six at bats.”

Monmouth made it 6-1 in the fourth when Buzzell doubled in a run. Then a Lessard fielder’s choice plated Buzzell.

Lisbon threatened again in the fifth. Hall singled in a run and another scored on a Monmouth error. Lessard had gone four-plus innings and did well, but the Mustangs went to Bryant to finish the game.

“My pitcher was a little tired,” Kaplan said. “She’d been at Project Graduation for three days. She’s been rafting and hasn’t thrown a softball. She did a great job for four innings. I wanted to give her a break. She was looking fatigued and they were starting to figure her out. It was a good time to make the change.”

Bryant  got a pop out to end that threat in the fifth. She allowed just one hit over the next two innings. Though Lisbon got two runners on in the sixth and two more on in the seventh, the Greyhounds  scored just once.

“Becki has a different look,” Kaplan said. “She doesn’t throw as hard, but she has a good drop ball. It’s a different look with her, and they struggled to catch up to the drop ball.”

Monmouth made it 7-3 in the sixth when Fletcher singled in a run. Lisbon got one more in the seventh when Monica Austin scored on a double steal.

Lisbon pitchers Hill and Alyssa Hall combined to scatter seven Monmouth hits.

The Mustangs lost to Hall-Dale 8-3 earlier in the season. It will be an interesting matchup for Kaplan, who coached there for 10 years.

“That will be fun,” Kaplan said of Thursday’s quarterfinal. “(Coach Christen Lachapelle) was my assistant coach for several years. She’s an awesome young coach. I love her to death, and we talk all the time. It will be a friendly feud.”

kmills@sunjournal.com