PARIS — The Oxford Hills softball freshmen ladies took the fight to the Knights of Poland on Saturday, May 7, with a 21-7 rout.

Poland started strong in the top of the first inning as the lead-off batter would reach on a single to left, steal second and then score on an infield throwing error, giving the Knights a quick 1-0 lead.

Two outs later, a single up the middle scored the runner from second and Poland led 2-0.

Oxford Hills came right back in the bottom of the first inning as Kaitlyn Fogg led off with a ground ball to short, hustling up the line as she beat out the throw for an infield single.

Fogg immediately stole second on the next pitch and then went to third on a wild pitch.

Kayla Currier delivered Fogg home with an RBI infield hit to second, making it 2-1.

Currier scored to tie the game at two when a series of throwing errors by the Knights on a grounder by Hayley McLeod.

McLeod ended up at third base on the play and scored on a ground out by Viking starting pitcher, Sydney Crocker.

Crocker took the mound at the top of the second with a 3-2 Viking lead and retired the Knights in order.

Oxford Hills tacked on two more runs in the bottom of the second inning for a 5-2 lead. Sarah Metcalf led off with a single. Karleigh Dexter followed with an infield hit and Fogg walked to load the bases with nobody out. Crocker then delivered run number four with a hard grounder to second base that wasn’t handled. Run five scored on a bases loaded walk before Poland finally got out of the inning.

The Knights came back in the top of the third with a lead-off single followed by a double to leftfield then an infield single to third to cut the lead to 5-4, Vikings.

Later in the inning with two out a Viking error at shortstop allowed the Knights to tie the game at five.

Oxford Hills’ Courtney Emond led off the bottom of the third with an infield hit and go to second on a walk to batter, Metcalf.

Emond scored to make it 6-5 Vikings when she stole third and came home on an errored throw by Poland’s catcher trying to nab her at third.

Once the Vikings had the 6-5 lead, they never looked back as they would tack on 13 more runs in the bottom of the third, including Crocker hitting two triples in the inning to add four more runs batted in to her game high total of six.

Poland scored two runs in the top of the fourth to make the score 19-7.

The Vikings responded by tacking on two more their own in the bottom of the fourth for a 21-7 lead.

With Poland pressured to score in the top of the fifth or the game would end on a mercy rule, their lead-off batter would walk. However, the next three would go down in order to end the game.

The Vikings and Knights had tied 18-18 in an earlier season meeting. Coach Kim Kangas-Smith was happy to see how her team “keeps working hard and improving all season long.”