Samantha Dolan was getting ready to take her place at the on-deck circle, knowing there was a chance for her to be the hero. But Dolan didn’t want that opportunity. She wanted Sam Portz, who was batting before her with the bases loaded, to deliver the winning moment.

Dolan walked to Portz at the plate with a simple message and patted her on the back with the score tied in the seventh inning.

“I said, ‘Sam, you’ve done this all game,’ ” Dolan said. “Look for something little and you got it.”

Dolan was spot on. Portz drove the third pitch of the at-bat up the middle for a two-run single to break a tie at 4 and spark a five-run seventh inning as top-seeded Massapequa defeated No. 3 Oceanside, 9-5, in the Nassau Class AAA softball final at Farmingdale State on Friday night to complete a two-game series sweep.

“It was the perfect pitch,” Portz said. “And it was just about getting a hit. I wasn’t going for the fences, just little hits to help the team out. It felt amazing. Running down the first-base line, I was so hyped.”

Portz’s two-run single, which drove in Madison Tucholski and Sienna Erker, helped deliver Massapequa its fourth county title in the last five years. Massapequa won the Nassau AA title three straight years (2021-2023), but lost in the first Nassau AAA final to Oceanside last season. That final loss stuck with Massapequa the entire season.

“We knew we had this, we knew we could handle them,” Tucholski said. “We knew we were the better team.”

Massapequa (20-5) plays the winner of Sachem North against Riverhead in the Long Island Class AAA championship/Southeast Regional final at 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday at Farmingdale State. Oceanside finished at 16-10.

Massapequa needed Portz’s winning hit to answer Oceanside’s three-run sixth inning. Maya Levy had a two-out, two-run single up the middle on a 1-and-1 count to tie the score at 4 for Oceanside. Christina Vlahakis went 4-for-4 with a pair of RBI doubles. She also had a single and scored a run in the sixth inning.

But Massapequa never lost confidence.

“They were ready to go,” coach Christina Castellani said. “They were excited to get back in the top of the seventh and score some runs. We challenged them and said, ‘Hey, let’s score one,’ and they came up and they put up five and I’ll take that. It was a nice surprise.”

Dolan followed Portz with a deep drive, which was misplayed by an Oceanside outfielder, to bring home two more runs. Sienna Perino added an RBI single for Massapequa’s final run of the inning.

Tucholski had a one-out single followed by Erker’s double to left before Maeve Schiereck drew a walk to load the bases for Portz in the seventh.

“We’re prepared for the adversity, we know how to handle it,” Portz said. “They tied the game up and we just came right back. We didn’t give up. We stayed up, we hyped each other up in the dugout and we kept the energy up, and I think that really helped us.”

Tucholski went 2-for-4 with three runs, Erker went 2-for-4 with two runs, Schiereck went 2-for-3 with a pair of RBI singles and Portz went 2-for-4 with a double and three RBIs as the first four hitters in the Massapequa order.

“These girls are just resilient,” Castellani said. “Nothing fazes them.”

Massapequa’s postgame celebration included a special song for Dolan, who turned 17 on Friday, and the team sang “Happy Birthday” to her on the field.

“Probably the best birthday I’ve ever had,” Dolan said. “It was amazing. Most meaningful birthday I’ve ever had.”

But Massapequa isn’t done yet. Massapequa seeks its third LI championship in the last four years to continue the case for its first state title in program history.

“We’re ready to go,” Castellani said. “We’ll give them a couple of days off and let them enjoy the ride, but we’re back to business on Monday and getting ready for whoever we are going to play against. And we have 100% confidence that these girls are going to do it.”