Kennebunk’s Allie Gregoire slides safely into home under the tag of Gray-New Gloucester catcher Alexa Thayer during Monday night’s game in Gray.

GRAY — When 10 runs wasn’t enough for Kennebunk to put away Gray-New Gloucester on Monday, the Rams scored 11 — in one inning.

The Rams’ bats got going early before cooling off, then they needed a seventh-inning rally before running away with a 21-10 victory in eight innings in a WMC softball game.

Britney Gregoire got the ball rolling for Kennebunk (7-5), smacking a single out of the infield to lead off the game. The Rams scored three runs in the top of the first, and Gregoire collected three more hits in the game.

But the Patriots (4-5) responded with two runs of their own in the bottom of the first. And that’s how the first three innings went. Kennebunk put another run across in the top of the second, and Gray-NG got one of its own in the bottom half of the frame. The teams traded single runs again in the third.

When the Rams pushed across two more runs in the fourth and the Patriots didn’t respond, it looked like the Rams had finally seized control of the game. Then Kennebunk failed to score in the fifth for its first scoreless inning — and the first inning in which the Rams’ leadoff batter didn’t reach — and Gray-NG rallied with five runs in the bottom of the frame for a 9-7 lead.

“I think that once a team scores on us, (the girls) can get down and play down to that level, and they have to just keep driving,” Kennebunk coach Kortney Nedeau said. “With a team like this, with any team in this league, five runs is never going to be enough.”

The Patriots’ push was led by a four-run single by Allie Martel that included Kennebunk’s only two errors of the game.

Conversely, Gray-NG kicked the ball around more often. A pair of errors came in Kennebunk’s three-run first, and another one proved to be harmless in the top of the sixth.

Three Patriots errors were the spark that helped ignite the Rams’ 11-run eighth inning.

“It brought it down a little bit,” Gray-NG coach Amanda Harmon said. “And that’s on them to bring it back up. We’ve been working a lot on doing that. I think they tried, and then once one more thing happens it’s hard to continue to pick back up. We did stay strong communication-wise, just weren’t producing the final outs.”

The Rams were able to rally in the top of the seventh and tried putting the Patriots away in regulation by taking a 10-9 lead. Zoe Novicki hit a game-tying, two-run home run, and Kylie DeFeo followed by drawing a walk on a 3-2 pitch before later scoring on an RBI single by Gregoire.

The Patriots countered with a lead-off single by Haley True, who then gave way to courtesy runner Sydney Rodrigues. An Alexa Thayer single and a Cara Waltz walk pushed Rodrigues to third, and a wild pitch brought her home to tie the game. Thayer, representing the winning run, was then stranded at third by a pair of fly outs.

Lindsey Gregoire led off the top of the eighth by reaching on an error. She then was safe at second on a fielder’s choice grounder by sister Allie Gregoire. Lydia Howarth reached on another error to load the bases, then a wild pitch brought the Rams’ 11th run home and started an avalanche of Kennebunk scoring. A sacrifice fly scored another run before the next 10 Kennebunk batters reached.

Martel, who was lifted from the pitching circle for True in the seventh, came back on to face the final four batters of the game. She gave up the final Kennebunk run and walked a batter before picking up a strikeout and a groundout to end the top of the frame.

DeFeo, the third Kennebunk pitcher of the game but the one who lasted the longest (three full innings), induced three straight groundouts in the bottom of the eighth to end the game.

The Rams belted out 17 hits, including 10 extra-base hits. Novicki added two doubles to her homer, while Howarth had a pair of triples and Allie Gregoire collected two doubles.

“My offense is crushing it right now,” Nedeau said. “These kids are all on top of the ball, they’re not letting anything go by them. They’re taking advantage of their at-bats, they’re protecting the plate. They’re timing up the pitch and being able to be strategic with where they place the ball. Not just hoping to get a hit, but an outside pitch, taking it to right field, an inside pitch, trying to pull it.

“They’re really getting strategic with their hitting, and controlling their bat nicely, and seeing the ball really well right now.”

The Patriots had 11 hits of their own, but just one for extra bases. Isabella Brindley smacked a double, while Thayer collected three hits. Gray-NG scored nine of its 10 runs off Howarth (four runs allowed in 2 1/3 innings pitched) and Sydney Waitt (five runs in 2 2/3 innings) before DeFeo allowed just one run in the final three frames.

“Definitely was a lot that went on,” Harmon said. “Good, bad and indifferent, it’s the way you play the full game. We came up a little short. I think maybe a little less than 100 percent on a couple of them, maybe a couple fly balls we could have gotten, and we didn’t, and then you know that just produces one thing after the other. Gave them a little bit more momentum, and it took it away from us.”

“Every game something is different, and something you don’t expect happens in our games,” Harmon said.

wkramlich@sunjournal.com

Kennebunk’s Lindsey Gregoire catches the ball at first base to get Gray-New Glouster’s Jordan Grant during Monday evening’s game in Gray.

Gray-New Gloucester’s Haley True attempts to tag out Kennebunk’s Allie Gregoire during the softball game on Monday afternoon in Gray. Gray-New Gloucester first baseman Isabella Brindley waits at the ready.

Gray-New Gloucester third baseman Grace Kariotis catches the ball too late to tag out Kennebunk’s Lydia Howarth, as Allie Martel from Gray-New Gloucester looks on during the Monday afternoon softball game in Gray.

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