SOUTH CHINA — Sonja Morse has won her share of games on the mound at Erskine Academy, but Friday was the first time she did it in an opposing uniform.

The junior, who transferred to Cony last fall, led the unbeaten Rams to a 7-0 victory against the Eagles, beating her former team for the second time this season. Morse allowed two hits, struck out eight and walked one.

“I know the field so I knew how the pitching mound was,” Morse said. “I kind of have a little bit of an advantage on that, I guess.”

Cony (15-0) collected nine hits off Erskine starter Alyssa Gartley, including two apiece from Alyssah Dennett, Nicole Rugan and Molly Russell. But the Rams didn’t put the game away until scoring two runs in both the sixth and seventh innings. To that point, it was a tight game and an improvement for the Eagles (11-4) over the 5-1 loss to the Rams in Augusta earlier this month.

“Our goal was to play defense,” Erskine coach Holly Tripp said. “We did a much better job, we were way more relaxed. There was no pressure in this game for us. We would love to win but we don’t have a perfect season to protect.”

The Rams scored twice in the first inning as Dennett singled and Rugan doubled to left, putting runners on second and third. Both came home on Maggie Russell’s single to left. Erskine’s Meryl Bond opened the bottom of the first with a line-drive double to the fence in center.

“We threw a changeup to her, so that was a bad decision,” Morse said. “But it was a really good hit because she kept her hands back.”

Gartley settled into a groove after the first inning and retired nine batters in a row, getting an outstanding catch along the way by Ashley Green of Rugan’s line drive to deep center field. The Eagles mounted their best scoring threat in the fourth inning when Mikhaela Helm led off with a walk and Hannah Peabody’s bunt was misplayed, putting runners on first and third with no one out.

But Morse (9-0) bore down to get Hattie Welch on a popup, struck out Taylor Boucher and got Avery Bond to ground out to end the threat. She retired the last nine batters she faced before giving way to freshman Arika Brochu, who pitched a scoreless seventh.

The Rams made it 3-0 in the fifth when Molly Russell led off with a triple to right and Olivia Deeves followed with a bunt single. Russell was cut down at home on Cecilia Fuller’s bunt back to Gartley, but Deeves later scored on a throwing error. Cony added two runs in the sixth and two more in the seventh after consecutive singles from Brochu, Dennett and Rugan.

The Rams get a shot at an unbeaten regular season when they host Bangor on Tuesday.

“She kept us off balance and we didn’t square up like we usually do,” Cony coach Rocky Gaslin said of Gartley. “It’s nice to see some good talented pitching and the girls from Erskine played hard. It’s fun to play a tough team.”

Gary Hawkins — 621-5638

ghawkins@centralmaine.com

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