SOUTH PARIS – Escaping from an early hole has been the norm for Oxford Hills this season, but Saturday, the Vikings found themselves in too big a crater.
Cony roared out to a 7-0 lead in the first two innings and never looked back in an 8-0 Eastern A softball semifinal victory.
The Vikings have made a living from shaking off early deficits of 1-0 and 2-0, but when the Rams seized such a sizable advantage Saturday, Oxford Hills had little recourse.
“We have to be within two to make it a game,” said Oxford Hills coach Cindy Goddard.
Cony pitcher Monica White prevented the Vikings from any hope for a rally, by limiting them to three hits. Annie Foster and Randi Arsenault had infield singles early in the game. Molly Dow had a single in the seventh to account for all of the Oxford Hills offense.
“We actually hit better today than the first time we play against her,” said Goddard, whose team lost to the Rams 6-0 on one hit. “She must have struck out 14. We did better making contact.”
Oxford Hills had beaten the Rams to open the season but many of the Rams were away on a school trip, including White. Cony won a later meeting in late May. White struck out seven batters and walked none Saturday.
“The first two (playoff) games, we only got one run, and we’ve been able to hold onto it with pitching and defense,” said Cony coach Rocky Gaslin, whose club was error-free for the third straight game.
Cony took a 3-0 lead, thanks to disaster in the field for the Vikings. Amanda Mason and White reached base on errors. Mason ended up scoring on a wild pitch. When the Vikings tried to get White moving to third on the play, they threw the ball away. A Shannon Radsky sacrifice fly plated another run for the 3-0 lead.
“We just made errors early on, and they capitalized,” said Goddard. “They did everything well. They played good defense, and we probably had like four errors in that first inning.”
That was just what the Rams had hoped to do. With a speedy and aggressive offense, Cony wanted to put the squeeze on the Vikings early.
“We try to finesse them,” said Gaslin. “We put a little pressure on their defense and make them throw the ball around with some slaps and bunts and steals. We just create pressure.”
In the second, Cony received two-run doubles from Radsky and Mason to increase the lead to 7-0.
In the third, Holly Rines singled, stole second and eventually scored on a wild pitch.
“You could see they weren’t ready to play after we were up 8-0,” said Gaslin. “You could see they packed it in. It was hot out. You could see their shoulder’s go down.”
After being 12th and losing in the prelims last year, the fourth-ranked Vikings ended the season at 14-5.
“It was a good season overall,” said Goddard. “We went from (No. 12) to here.”
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