DEVENS — When the best-of-the-best from around the state gathered to play in the gold medal game of the 2024 Bay State Games, high-level performances are expected.

And through seven innings of Thursday’s softball finale at Willard Field Complex, neither Team Metro or Team West could scrape runs across against one another.

It was terrific softball on both sides, with each defense rising to the occasion.

But in the top of the eighth, Team West finally broke through.

With a runner starting on second base in the extra frame (following the MLB’s ghost runner rule), West head coach Fred Roach was thrilled to finally have a player in scoring position with no outs – something Team West hadn’t had all game.

West proceeded to bring across four runs in the inning, with Morgan Peabody (two), Skyler Steele and CC Thayer all driving home runs. That was plenty for pitcher Brianna Lynch, who struck out the final two batters of the game as part of her complete-game, eight-inning shutout win in the circle.

Team West earned the gold medal via a 4-0 victory over Team Metro to finish the week undefeated (3 wins, 0 losses, 3 ties).

“We needed to get base runners, which we struggled to do throughout the game,” Roach said. “Once we started with the runner on second, I knew we could get something to happen. I think Metro got a little nervous, and then we got a couple of key hits that really helped us. When you score four in an extra-inning situation like that, it puts you in good shape.”

After missing all of Wednesday’s pool play games due to an injury, Thayer, a junior at Hampshire, came up clutch with a big hit in the eighth inning.

Sitting and watching from the bench wasn’t exactly what she had in mind when she agreed to play on Team West (her third and final year with the squad), but when she got her opportunity to play for gold, she took advantage of it, going 2-for-4 with an RBI.

“I absolutely hated sitting the bench yesterday, but it awesome to watch everyone adapt and come together,” Thayer said. “We had great chemistry this year. I thought it was amazing to watch that, but I thought it was even greater to come back and be a part of it. I felt good enough to play today, and I’m glad I could help the team out.”

Fellow local standout Skyler Steele also made waves at the plate. Steele reached base twice, scored a run and also ripped a clutch RBI double in the eighth. Steele, who just completed a strong freshman year at Frontier, was praised by Roach for her on-field maturity and readiness to play regardless of her young age.

Steele and the rest of Team West stayed focused through blistering heat, and never let their frustration mount despite being held without a run in regulation.

“Us girls worked really hard to push through the heat, and we put everything we had into this,” Steele said. “It was crazy. For so long, we just held each other, and it felt like we were such equal teams. It was really hard for either of us to score, but we did.”

Prior to Thursday’s gold medal game, West had to win its final pool play game – which was played in the morning. A loss would’ve put them in the bronze medal game, but West’s bats were wide awake, even at 9 a.m., and they cruised to a 13-2, five-inning win over Southeast.

Franklin Tech’s Kylee Gamache, a rising senior, caught both games for Team West. Gamache didn’t seem one bit fazed by the 90 degree weather behind the dish, as she stopped everything thrown at her in the 13 total innings she caught.

“Kylee Gamache did a phenomenal job behind the plate for us, especially in this heat,” Roach said. “And she caught two games today. She was the highlight of our team today.”

Going undefeated en route to a gold medal clearly has a lot to do with players making plays. Heck, Roach would take it one step further and say their success was 100 percent on them. He turned to the parents while the players lined up to receive their medals and said, “all I did was yell at them, they made the plays,” which received several laughs.

But the players saw it differently. Roach, a South Hadley native and the head softball coach at West Springfield High School, has made a clear impact on everybody on the team. Several of them were in tears when accepting their medals from him. He was recently inducted into the Bay State Games Hall of Fame for his 20-plus years coaching the West team.

“He is so supportive, and one of the best coaches I’ve ever had,” Steele said of Roach. “I love him to death, and I love that we won. I feel like we did it for him.”

“I love Coach Fred, he’s awesome and an up-beat person,” Thayer added. “He’s a big light to this whole program, and I think he brought us all up a level. I think he’s great, and he deserves a lot of the credit for us winning.”

Lynch (Lee High School) struck out seven over her eight innings, surrendering just one walk and one hit-by-pitch on seven hits. Peabody (West Springfield) got the eighth-inning party started with her two-run single that stood as the game-winning hit.

After coming up just shy in 2023, the gold medal has returned to Team West in 2024.

• The West baseball team concluded its Bay State Games on Thursday, falling to Central, 8-5, in the bronze medal game.

West went 2-3-1 overall. They picked up wins over Central (6-5) and Southeast (11-7) on Tuesday to start 2-0 before suffering losses to Coastal (1-0) and Metro (14-4) on Wednesday. They tied Northeast, 4-4, on Thursday to get into the bronze medal game.

The West roster included locals Thatcher Rudnik (Amherst), Logan Moore (Mohawk Trail), Grayson Loos (Frontier), Ian McDonald (Belchertown), Jake Waller (Belchertown), Weston Anderson (Gateway), Brandon Carillon (Granby), Zach Phakos (Hampshire), Alex West (Hopkins) and Memphis Huertas (South Hadley).