AUGUSTA — Lawrence made the most of its three hits and rode the pitching of senior Lilly Herrin to a much-needed victory Wednesday.

The Bulldogs scored early, getting a two-run homer from senior Lauren Lambert, then held off a late rally for a 4-2 win over host Cony.

The win snaps a three-game losing streak for Lawrence — now 3-5 in Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference play — while Cony fell to 2-4.

“We’ve been hitting the ball hard but it’s been going right to people,” Lawrence coach Joey Marcoux said. “Today … we manufactured some runs and that long-ball was really nice.”

Lawrence scored a run in the first off Rams starter Gabby McGuire. Camryn Caldwell led off the game with a well-placed, two-strike bunt, then took third when Cony third baseman Alexis Couverette charged Sam Knox’s bunt and no one covered her base. In the second, a dropped pop-up set the stage for Lambert two-run homer over the left field fence to make it 3-0. It was the first home run of her career.

“It felt really good,” Lambert said. “It didn’t feel like I really hit it that hard. I didn’t think it was going over the fence. I was rounding second and I had to ask my coach if it went over because I couldn’t believe it.”

Cari Hopkins relieved McGuire in the third inning and set down the first 12 batters she faced before Haley Holt led off the seventh with a walk and scored on Hunter Mercier’s base hit.

“She came in and closed the door,” Cony coach Rocky Gaslin said of Hopkins. “Cari pitched most of the game (Tuesday) so I gave her a little break today. I started Gabby and we made a couple of errors and they got two unearned runs.”

Herrin allowed four Cony hits, struck out nine and walked three. She used her fastball, curve and drop to change the eye level of Cony hitters and keep them off balance. She lost a little focus in the sixth when she used back-to-back two-out walks, but bounced back to fan clean-up hitter Carly Lettre to end the inning.

“I started losing my release point and I was just trying to get it back,” Herrin said. “I just had to regain my confidence and get my head back in it. I grabbed a new ball to shake things up and I really forced myself to push off the mound a little more to give myself a little extra power.”

The Bulldogs went up 4-0 in the top of the seventh before the Rams rallied in the bottom of the inning. Allee Cloutier led off with a single up the middle, her second hit of the game, and took third when Couverette doubled to the base of the fence in left after fouling off six two-strike pitches. A sacrifice fly from Hopkins and a ground-out by McGuire cut the Lawrence lead to 4-2. Herrin ended the game when struck caught pinch-hitter Alexis Everett looking at a third strike.

“We’re a good softball team,” Marcoux said. “We’re just not an excellent softball team yet. If we can get to that point where we start getting some confidence in ourselves, stop giving people runs and making plays behind our pitcher, we’re going to be fine.”

Cony resumes play Friday against Hampden.

“We played a lot better today than we did (Tuesday),” Gaslin said. “We’re in a little dip right now these last two games. Hopefully, we can change it by Friday.”

Related Stories