Staff photo / Neel Madhavan Hubbard’s Layla Songer (15) swings at a pitch during Tuesday’s game against Poland in Hubbard. The freshman had a pair of doubles and RBIs for the victorious Eagles.

HUBBARD — Layla Songer may only be a freshman, but she certainly doesn’t play like one.

As Hubbard’s third baseman, Songer has the team’s highest batting average (.462) through the first five games of the season, and she continued her scorching start to her high school career on Tuesday with a pair of doubles and two RBIs to help lift the Eagles to a 9-7 victory over Northeast-8 Conference rival Poland.

“(Songer’s) definitely a high-performing athlete for us, and she just continues to grow every single game,” Hubbard head coach Annie Zagorec said. “She’s a very hard worker, and she’s extremely motivated. Even when we’re done practicing, she’s doing stuff on her own on top of everything we’re doing at the high school. She’s really motivated to play at the next level.”

Songer’s most timely play of the game came in the bottom of the fifth inning with Hubbard sitting on a narrow 6-5 lead after Poland had rallied with two runs in the top of the frame to cut the deficit.

With two outs on the board, the Eagles (5-1, 3-0 NE-8) were able to load the bases, as they tried to build on their lead. Songer then belted a high fly ball into the shallow part of left field, but an error on the catch by Poland shortstop Elliana Thompson allowed Songer to reach base and resulted in two runs scoring for Hubbard.

But Hubbard did most of its damage in the bottom of the third inning when the Eagles took advantage of four walks by Bulldogs pitchers Lillian McDonald and Madison Medvec with two hits by Ashley Masluk and Kaylee Schultz.

Masluk ended up finishing with two hits and two RBIs, as Schultz added two hits of her own with an RBI, as well. The Eagles scored five runs during the inning and could have plated more after leaving two runners on base, until Medvec was able to see out the threat.

“We had some timely hits on top of the walks we had and some heads-up baserunning that really contributed to those runs we were able to score that inning,” Zagorec said.

Poland (1-3, 0-0 NE-8) ended up finishing with nine walks throughout the evening, as head coach Jim Serich cycled through three of his pitchers to try to find some consistency in the circle.

“We get nine walks, if you do that consistently, you’re not going to succeed a lot,” Serich said. “With (Hubbard), if you walk No. 8 and No. 9 and then they roll the top of the order over, that’s not good. We’re going to work on that. We’ve got three young pitchers — (McDonald) threw some for us last year, and we got a freshman (Medvec) and junior (Addison Draa) that really haven’t thrown a lot. So we’re working through those, and eventually, we’ll get there.”

Despite its issues in the circle, Poland had its fair share of opportunities to rally thanks to 12 hits, which included two hits apiece from Thompson, McDonald, Leanna Boccieri and Kylee Hudran. Medvec also added an RBI double.

“I thought hitting-wise, we were okay,” Serich said. “We just didn’t play well today. We’re young, and I’ll give them a little pass on that. But we’re just taking those steps and taking it one game at a time. We know where we’re at, we’re just trying to get better. It’s not where you start, it’s where you finish.”

The Eagles had some timely outs that helped them to hold off the Bulldogs, including a double play in the fourth inning by Lauren Komorek and a strikeout in the sixth inning by Schultz, who pitched the final 2.1 innings in relief of Haleigh Taylor, who started and threw 4.2 innings.

“Our defense was definitely heads up,” Zagorec said. “Lauren Komorek had that excellent double play, and I think that really set the tone for the rest of the game, defense-wise.”

Hubbard makes the return visit to Poland today in the second game of the series at 5 p.m.