If the end was indeed near for the Haymarket Senators on Monday night, then the wooden bat baseball club made sure to go out with an offensive fury.

The Senators racked up their third straight win, defeating visiting Front Royal 16-7. Such a win not only kept Haymarket alive in the playoff hunt, but it turned out to be Haymarket's second-best offensive output of the season.

"Tonight’s home game is a must win game for the Senators if they plan to advance to the 2011 playoffs," read an e-mail from the Haymarket staff to supporters a little over 5 hours before the first pitch.

Sure enough, Haymarket played like it, racking up more runs in one night since tallying 17 against Strasburg in a 10-run win on June 10.

After 2.5 scoreless innings, Haymarket's first four batters reached base in the bottom of the third inning. Josh Boyd led off with a double and eventually scored on a Matt Marra RBI single to put Haymarket ahead 1-0.

Luck then struck the Senators hard with Chris Bresnahan on second base and Marra on first as designated hitter Mike Snyder hit what should have been a throw-out to third base, only for the ball to sail errantly away from first on the toss across the diamond. Both lead runners scored and Snyder wheeled himself over to third base.

With one out, Jimmy Dowdell drove in Snyder with an RBI single to complete a four-run third inning, which gave the Senators plenty of operating room for starting pitcher Frankie Vanderka (3-4 overall, 4.89 ERA).

The Stony Brook University freshman kept the Cardinals off the scoreboard through the first five innings and entered the sixth with a seven-run advantage. Back to back home runs by Matt Hendricksen and Ben Thoma served as part of a five-run inning that narrowed Haymarket's lead to two in what turned out to be Vanderka's final inning.

However, an RBI double by Snyder in the bottom half of the inning coupled with a run driven on by Ryan McBroom pumped Haymarket right back up, setting up the Senators for one of their biggest innings of the year.

Haymarket tallied seven runs on eight hits and one error in the seventh inning as the team batted around and then some, with two outs virtually the entire way.

After a single by Mike Friel, Front Royal punched out two Senators on strike outs. That's when the floodgates opened at the plate as Marra, Snyder both collected 2 RBI doubles. McBroom, Dowdell, Friel and Nelson all drove in runs too, which put the Senators out on top 16-6.

Front Royal tallied one run in the top of the ninth after closer Matt Marra came in to close the game after Ted Hurval and Jacob Peterson each pitched one inning a piece, giving up a combined one run on three hits.

Added significance to the win came in the form of what team the Senators played. Front Royal has held on to the second place spot in the four-team North division throughout much of the summer but has slid recently, losing eight out of 10 games following the Monday night defeat.

Haymarket's win put the Senators one game behind the Cardinals. If Haymarket were to win out its final two games and Front Royal lose out, the Senators would clinch the No. 6 seed in the Valley Baseball League tournament.

The top two teams from each division automatically earn playoff berths. Two wild card teams then compete for the remaining two spots.

Statistically, the Monday night victory actually put Haymarket in better shot to capture the sixth seed than the seventh or eighth seeds. Rockbridge and Covington held those two spots with Woodstock only one game behind Covington.

Haymarket exited Monday two games out of the eighth spot. The team was set to close out the regular season on the road against cellar-dwelling Strasburg and first-place Winchester between Tuesday and Wednesday.