TURNER -The no-hitter came and went, and Sam St. Hilaire barely noticed.

The Leavitt pitcher did so well against the Oxford Hills softball team this season that Friday’s no-hitter hardly registered.

St. Hilaire blanked the Vikings for the third time this season with a 3-0 Eastern Maine Class A quarterfinal win.

“Was this a no-hitter?” she replied after being asked about it. “I didn’t know that.”

Of course, the Vikings probably noticed. Oxford Hills already lost to Leavitt 12-0 and 1-0 in the regular season. St. Hilaire had allowed just three hits and struck out 22 in the two games.

Oxford Hills (10-8) produced a few more threats Friday but still couldn’t create the clutch hits needed.

Leavitt hosts a semifinal game at 2 p.m. today.

“I felt the last time we faced her she was totally in control,” said Oxford Hills coach Cindy Goddard. “I thought we had more solid contact today up and down the lineup. The last time we played, it was a 1-0 game, and we didn’t have many offensive opportunities. Today, we got a couple of people at second with less than two outs.”

Though it was a 1-0 game up until the bottom of the sixth inning, the Vikings couldn’t solve St. Hilaire. She struck out six batters. All the Vikings baserunners came on three walks and a hit batter.

“I didn’t really have a strategy,” said St. Hilaire. “I just wanted to work the batters as well as I could (and) work with what I had from the last time I faced them.”

The Vikings got Lauren Austin and Abby Chouinard to second in the fourth and fifth. Both times, Oxford Hills had only one out.

In the fourth, St. Hilaire got a soft liner to first and a strikeout to end the inning. In the fifth, a fly out and a nice catch by Beth Ellis of a Lindsay Piirainen liner to second nixed that chance.

“Piirainen had a shot that was caught,” said Goddard. “If that gets by the second baseman and scores a run, it would have been a 1-1 game. Then it might have been a different game.”

St. Hilaire got plenty of support around her. The Hornets made the defensive plays and never gave Oxford Hills further opportunity. It was a much-improved performance after last week’s error-filled loss to Messalonskee in the KVAC championship game.

“They looked better than they did against Messalonskee,” said Leavitt coach Pete Higgins. “They got a little confidence going.”

The Hornets also got the lead right away. Three hits in the first inning put Leavitt (17-0 in regular-season and playoffs) on the board early. Alanna Leonard’s two-out single scored Laura Pratt.

“That really gave us a lot of confidence,” said St. Hilaire. “We’d been in a hitting slump and that showed that we were out of that slump. We were really hitting well.”

Leavitt had ample opportunity to build on that lead. The Hornets left 11 runners on base. Oxford Hills pitcher Randi Arsenault did a fine job shaking off some Viking errors and keeping her club in the game through the first five innings. She allowed only four hits after the three in the first. She struck out four and walked three.

“We did leave a lot on the bases,” said Higgins. “We were getting them on base. That’s part of the solution. You’ve got to get them there to bring them in.”

Leavitt finally added to the lead in the sixth. A walk and an error opened the door. Pratt singled in a run and a Gretchen Conn sacrifice fly scored another.

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