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AUGUSTA—The Cony High School softball team showed why it is the top seed in the Eastern Class A tournament Thursday.
The Rams pounded out 11 hits and Arika Brochu turned in a dominant performance in the circle to lead Cony to a 13-1 victory in six innings over No. 8 Hampden Academy.
“We looked good today,” Cony coach Rocky Gaslin said. “Good pitching, good receiving. (Catcher) Alyssah Dennett did a good job of calling the game and we had some timely hits today, which is nice.”
Cony will now face fourth-seeded Oxford Hills at 2 p.m., Saturday, with the winner moving on to face either No. 2 Skowhegan or No. 3 Bangor in the Eastern A finals.
“They’re always a big group to play against, they always bring a big crowd,” Brochu said of the matchup with Oxford Hills. “It’s always a good game against them, so we’re going to have to just kind of see how it goes.”
Another performance from Brochu like the one she turned in Thursday couldn’t hurt the Rams’ chances against the Vikings.
The Cony ace gave up just one hit — a sharply lined single from Paige Yost in the second inning — and the lone run she allowed was unearned.
“She’s the best in the league,” Gaslin said.
Offensively it was a strong effort across the board as all nine Cony starters scored at least one run, with lead-off hitter Dennett going 2-for-2 with a single, double and three runs scored (the last of which scored by a courtesy runner).
Maggie Russell finished 2-for-3 with a double, single and three RBIs, Kasidy Turgeon had two singles and two runs scored and Skyler Watson scored a pair of runs after perfectly executing a pair of bunt singles to get on base.
It was Russell’s two-run single with two outs in the bottom of the sixth that ended the game, but the Rams scored all the runs that they would need in the second.
Turgeon led off the inning with a single, but the ball got past Hampden’s center fielder to allow her to take third.
She scored three pitches later on a double to left by Russell, who in turn scored after Michayla Dostie reached safely on an error on the Broncos’ shortstop.
“Anytime in the playoffs errors will hurt you,” Gaslin said. “We took advantage of them.”
Dostie took second on the throw home to try to get Russell, advanced to third on a groundout to second by Delaney Keithley and scored on a bunt single from Watson.
After a groundout to third by Autumn Sudsbury, Watson scored on a double from Dennett. The Rams’ catcher rounded out the scoring in the inning by stealing third and taking home after the attempt to catch her stealing sailed into left field.
Evan Crawley — 621-5640
Twitter: @Evan_Crawley
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