AMHERST – Brayden Hickman knows the feeling.

While Souhegan’s winning pitcher Monday was answering a reporter’s postgame questions about his second and triumphant outing since making an incredible return from knee surgery, his revered but despondent teammate, senior shortstop Nolan Colby was getting a pep talk from Sabers coach Chris Metz after pulling his left hamstring while scoring the game winning run in a 3-2 victory over Pelham at Bill Dod Family Field.

“That’s awful to see,” Hickman said of Colby’s injury. “You never want to see that with anyone, our team or others. It was tough to see that happen, definitely. It hurst the team morale, but we’ll definitely make some adjustments to get through.”

Hickman, you see, blew out his knee in the fall during football and underwent surgery in October. The odds of him playing baseball this spring were not good, but he beat them. Now he and the 11-5 Sabers hope Colby can do the same, with the Division II tournament just a little more than a week away.

Colby literally took one for the team. After the 8-6 Pythons rallied to tie the game at 2 in the top of the sixth, he hit a one-out triple in the bottom of the inning and with two outs, ran home on your typical first-and-third play, with Cam Brown getting caught in a rundown off first to allow Colby the chance to score the winning run, which he did. But he lay head first after his slide and then got up and literally hopped off the field on one leg. Just the other day he was celebrating his 100th hit of his fabulous high school career, which he hopes can continue if he can heal fast enough.

“It’s tough to see anybody get hurt,” Metz said. “He’s busting his ass, too, doing what’s best for the team. That’s ust part of it, you hate to see it. He’s been battling all year with his hammys. It just sucks, but the mentality is next man up. We don’t know what’s up (with Colby), but we’ll figure that out tomorrow.”

This was a big win for the Sabers, who are battling for as high a seed as they can get, currently fifth, and home field in the first round. They took advantage of the fact Pelham starter Henry Paquette plunked six hitters, including two in that fateful sixth. Leadoff hitter Teddy Katsel scored the game’s first run on a wild pitch in the bottom of the first, and Max Hayes drove in the Sabers’ other run with an RBI single in the fourth to make it 2-0.

Hickman was done after six, and the Sabers turned to freshman reliever Alex Trudel to close the door. After getting the first two outs, a throwing error and a walk put runners on first and second, but Trudel got Pelham’s Paquette to fly out and end it.

“Alex comes in, the freshman and battles his butt off, and he’s been doing that all year,” Metz said. “We’ve put him in some tight situations.”

“We both made some mistakes,” said Pelham coach Scott Paquette, who lost his own shortstop Anthony Roman to a facial injury in pre-game warmups. “That’s baseball. We’re both in it, we’ll both be in it for awhile, and that’s what happens when two good teams battle it out.”

For Hickman, it was his first start, as he pitched in relief in his first outing a few days ago. He went six innings, allowing just an infield hit over the first five but his own throwing error opened the door for the Pythons (8-5) to tie the score in the top of the sixth on Kevin Hardy’s RBI hit and a sac fly by Jake Davidson.

Brayden Hickman delivers a pitch for Souhegan during Monday’s game vs. Pelham at Bill Dod Family Field in Amherst. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

But still, Hickman’s whole body of work was impressive.

“Phenomenal,” Metz said. “He’s been phenomenal. He’s got a great attitude, he doesn’t miss practice, and he’s one of the best teammates our team could have. Just him being on the mound is a win.”

“My thoughts were trusting my fielders behind me as the strikeouts weren’t there today,”: Hickman said. “They were giving me the outs I needed. … It kind of sucked watching everyone doing what you wish you could, but being out there and helping my team get that win was definitely a great moment.”

To help, that is, offset a not-so-great moment.