AUGUSTA — In sickness or in health, Arika Brochu is a tough pitcher to face.

Battling a sinus infection, Brochu was perfect through five innings, leading the Cony softball team to a 9-2 win over Oxford Hills in an Eastern Class A semifinal at Cony Family Field.

The Rams (15-3), the No. 1 seed, will play No. 2 Skowhegan in the regional final Tuesday at 7 p.m. in Augusta. The Indians beat Bangor 7-6 Saturday in the other semifinal.

Brochu pitched all seven innings, giving up two runs on three hits with six strikeouts and two walks. Oxford Hills (14-4) collected both runs and two of its three hits in the seventh inning as Brochu battled fatigue.

“Arika has been throwing really well,” Cony catcher Alyssah Dennett said. “She came here today with headaches, sinus (infection) and she threw amazing. They were hitting her but our defense just played really well today.”

Offensively, the Rams took advantage of the wildness of Vikings pitcher Crystal West. Tied 0-0 in the fourth inning, West hit a batter and walked three. Cony scored six runs in the inning, highlighted by an RBI single by center fielder Autumn Sudsbury and a bases-clearing triple by Dennett.

“We had been practicing (plate discipline),” Cony head coach Rocky Gaslin said. “With all the pitchers we’ve been facing, we’re not getting a lot of strikes. If we stay off the bad pitches and get on base, early on we didn’t do that. We were swinging at bad pitches and popping it up. We’re a better hitting team than that. A little more discipline at the plate has helped us a lot.”

Dennett’s triple almost never happened. She hit a line drive over the head of Vikings first baseman Anna Winslow. As Winslow reached up for the ball, it snuck just beyond the reach of her glove and headed down the right field line.

“(West) pitches me outside, so I just went with it and it went over (Winslow’s) head,” Dennett said. “I thought she was going to catch it, I thought I was going to be out at third, but I’m lucky they overthrew it.”

Two batters later, West was able to strike out Brochu to end the inning, but not without the Rams leading 6-0.

“(The inning) took a little fizzle out of us,” Oxford Hills head coach Cindy Goddard said.

Sudsbury led off the sixth with a single and West walked Oliva Deeves and Brochu to load the bases. Maggie Russell plated Sudsbury and Deeves with a 2-run single to center field to extend Cony’s lead to 8-0. It went to 9-0 after Brochu scored on a fielder’s choice.

Russell and Sudsbury led the Rams with two hits each.

Brochu retired 17 consecutive batters before Madison LeBlond, Oxford Hill’s designated player and No. 9 hitter, lined a pitch down the left field line for a double with two outs in the sixth inning.

With one out in the seventh, Winslow smacked a Brochu pitch off the center field wall for a triple, scoring moments later on an RBI single by Shannon Fillebrown. An error and a walk loaded the bases, and Fillebrown scored after Brochu walked Erin Morton, cutting the lead to 9-2.

Brochu was able to settle down and force LeBlond to line out to Sudsbury in center field to end the game.

“I’m glad we came back in the seventh,” Goddard said. “(Brochu) had a lot of runs to work with, but we still hung in there. We didn’t roll over and die, which was nice.”

Tuesday’s game will be the fourth meeting this season between the Rams and Indians. Cony has won all three previous contests, with a 12-9 win on April 28, a 3-2 win late in the regular season and a 10-0 victory in the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference Class A championship game on June 6.

“Skowhegan is a really good hitting team,” Dennett said. “They’re probably the best hitting team in our league. We’re just going to have to play good defense.”

“We’ve played them three times so far,” Gaslin said. “We’ve had some good games with them. We’re looking forward to going to Eastern Maine’s, too.”

Dave Dyer — 621-5639

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Twitter: @Dave_Dyer