AUGUSTA — The Cony baseball team entered its game against Nokomis on Friday with a six-game winning streak. A day earlier, coach Don Plourde put the Rams through their toughest practice of the season.
That work paid off Friday, as the Rams scored seven times in the first inning on their way to a 12-2 win in six innings.
“We just went back to it like it was Day 1, bringing that same mindset and doing all those things you do at the beginning of the season,” Plourde said. “We didn’t win it in the first inning; we won it yesterday when we busted our you-know-whats on the field.”
Parker Morin had four hits for the Rams, including a home run and a triple in the first inning. Nokomis, which had a seven-game winning streak snapped, was held to three hits by Cony pitchers Max Tibbetts and Drew Lindquist.
HOW CONY DID IT
• Parker Morin. The senior’s home run and triple bookended the scoring for Cony (12-2) in the first inning, when Tibbetts, Matt Boston, Lance Theriault and Jack Spellman also had hits. Morin’s last hit, a single in the bottom of the fifth, was nearly a double that would have given him the cycle.
“It was really just about working yesterday,” Morin said. “We had a tough practice yesterday, really working on the swing, and I feel like that translated to the game. … Hitting that (home run) kind of got us going, and we just kept it rolling from there.”
• Cony’s pitchers shut down Nokomis (10-5). Tibbetts was dominant through the first two innings, retiring the first six batters, four via strikeouts. Nokomis scored twice in the third, but Lindquist retired nine of the last 10.
WHAT IT MEANS
• Cony tightened its grip on first place in Class B North by winning a showdown of two red-hot Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference teams. Heading into Friday’s game, Nokomis had allows just six runs combined over its previous four games.
• While Cony’s offense showed its potential, the Rams’ pitching staff being at its best at the right time might be an even bigger building block. With Lindquist, a freshman, emerging as a solid option on a staff that also includes Tibbetts, Perry, Morin and Jordan Benedict, the Rams’ staff is talented and deep.
“Max started off hot and was pounding the zone, and he lost it for a little bit, but Drew Lindquist, I can’t say enough,” Plourde said. “He’s just a gamer; he’s a baseball junkie.”
• Despite the loss, Nokomis is still very much in the mix in Class B North and moved up a spot from fourth to third.
STAT LEADERS
• Nokomis: Tom Nyce (4 1/3 IP, 9 ER, K, 2 BB; 1B), Owen Menard (1B, RBI), Owen Buck (1B)
• Cony: Parker Morin (4 for 4, HR, 3B, 3 RBI), Max Tibbetts (W, 3 IP, 2 ER, 6 K, 3 BB), Drew Lindquist (3 IP, 0 ER, 1 hit allowed, K, BB), Jack Spellman (2 1B)
UP NEXT
• Nokomis: at Leavitt (6-8), 4 p.m. Thursday
• Cony: at Belfast (10-4), 3 p.m. Monday
