SOUTH PARIS —  One thing led to another — and another — and before the Oxford Hills softball team could recover, Wednesday’s game slipped away.

After building a two-run lead against unbeaten Cony, the Vikings watched the Rams rally in the sixth inning. It was a disaster-filled combination of plays that allowed Cony to take the lead for good in an 8-4 victory.

“We created a little more pressure,” said Cony coach Rocky Gaslin. “We didn’t do that most of the game. That first inning we did pretty well and got a couple of runs. Then we kind of slowed down for a few innings. Then once we got some baserunners on, good things happened.”

The Vikings (10-2) committed four errors in that sixth. There were a couple of bad decisions on plays and a wild pitch, allowing Cony to turn a 4-2 deficit into an 8-4 lead.

“We kind of put ourselves in a mental error by not having the best positioning for a bunt and not making a wise decision of getting the safe out,” Oxford Hills coach Cindy Goddard said. “We haven’t practiced a lot of those situations. We haven’t had a lot of those. There were nerves and pressure. You could see it. We were bobbling the ball. It all came together to be one big fat inning instead of easily getting out of that inning with only one or two runs.”

Alyssah Dennett led the Rams (11-0) with three hits and an RBI. She had two hits in that sixth inning and scored the first run. Arika Brochu had a pair of hits and drove in a run while Olivia Deeves had two hits.

Cony pitcher Sonja Morse allowed just four hits. Jordyn Sanborn had two of them for the Vikings. Morse finished with 14 strikeouts.  Oxford Hills pitcher Crystal West allowed eight hits and struck out six.

“Last year, we had a game just like this,” Dennett said. “I think we were down by five runs. We just knew that we couldn’t give up. We knew we had to focus and do as well as we could.”

Dennett led off the sixth with a double. Brochu followed with a bunt hit. Then Morse’s grounder was thrown home instead of getting the safe out. Dennett beat the throw to get the first run.

“I think when the first batter of the inning gets a hit, it becomes contagious,” said Dennett. “It’s a domino effect. We all hit off each other.”

Cony then had Molly Russell and Deeves reach on consecutive errors. Brochu scored on miscue on Deeves grounder. Then Veronica Wood had an infield hit that plated Morse and Russell came in on an subsequent error. Deeves made it 7-4 on a wild pitch, and Dennett finished off the inning with an RBI single.

“We gave them the inning,” said Goddard. “It wasn’t like they outhit us in that inning to get all the runs.”

Oxford Hills threatened in the bottom of the inning when Sanborn singled and Shannon Fillebrown reached on a fielder’s choice with one out. Morse then struck out the next two batters to end the inning.

Cony took the early lead with two runs in the first. A Brochu triple scored Dennett and Molly Russell plated the second run on a fielder’s choice.

“Those first three batters we weren’t looking very pretty,” said Goddard.

The Viking got one back in the first when Savannah Morin ran for West, who walked. She came around to score on an error. Then in the second, Abby Bernier tripled and scored on a Sanborn sacrifice fly to tie it.

Oxford Hills took the lead in the fourth when Anna Winslow reached on an error and later scored on another mistake while trying to steal third. Then in the fifth, Winslow homered to deep center for the 4-2 lead.

“It’s always nice to beat those guys, especially down here” said Gaslin, whose team handed the Vikings their only other loss with a 4-3 win in Augusta. “It’s tough coming down here on the bus. It’s a long drive. They’re always jacked up for us.”

kmills@sunjournal.com

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