AUGUSTA — The contact was there for the Cony baseball team on Tuesday; it certainly wasn’t for the visiting Hermon Hawks.
It was only a matter of time, then, before the home team plated the runs it needed to win — and once those runs came, there was no stopping the Rams in a performance that showed exactly why they’ve won 12 straight games.
Kam Douin struck out 11 batters over six innings in a combined no-hitter with Landon Foster while Cony pounded out 13 hits in a 9-0 win over Hermon in the Class B North quarterfinals. The victory sent the Rams to the regional semis, where they will face either No. 3 Ellsworth or No. 6 John Bapst. Those teams are set to play Thursday evening.
“We’ve been really working hard at practice on situational hitting — taking one at-bat at a time and working the count but also being aggressive — and it’s paid off,” said Cony head coach Don Plourde. “We did that today and got a great game from our pitchers, and when you do that, good things happen.”
Douin struggled with walks early for No. 2 Cony (16-1) but was ultimately able to emerge from the first three innings unscathed as he struck out three batters in the first inning, two in the second and two more in the third. He then struck out another two in the fourth as part of a one-two-three inning.
Cony, which had recorded a hit in each of the first three innings but had failed to string those base knocks together, did so in the fourth. After Jordan Benedict knocked in the first two runs, an error brought in two more to make it a 4-0 game. Kam Douin then doubled to deep center to bring in the inning’s final run.
“I think we changed our mindset a little bit (after the first three innings) and really bared down,” Douin said. “He wanted to throw a lot of strikes and wasn’t going to give up the walk, so we started kind of jumping on pitches early. I think once we did that, that was the difference-maker.”
Cony third baseman Matt Boston, left, reacts after scoring a run during a Class B North quarterfinal game against Hermon on Wednesday at Morton Field in Augusta. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal
Cony then added three runs on three hits in the fifth inning to chase No. 10 Hermon (8-10) starter Max Hopkins from the game. The Rams scored one final run in the sixth before Foster relieved Douin and struck out the side in quick fashion to clinch a well-rounded victory.
Benedict, Douin, Matt Boston, Davis Kibler, Parker Morin and Lance Theriault all had two-hit games for Cony in the win. Trent Hayward had the remaining hit for the Rams, who committed zero errors to Hermon’s two. Hopkins had four strikeouts in 4 2/3 innings of work for the Hawks.
While Douin finished with five walks, he only issued one over the last four innings. Even as he stopped striking out batters at such a prolific rate, the reigning Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference Class B Pitcher of the Year was able to induce weak contact in the late innings to stifle the Hermon offense.
Hermon third basemen Tommy Meserve applies a late tag on Cony right fielder Lance Theriault at third base during a Class B North quarterfinal game Wednesday at Morton Field in Augusta. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal
“I would say my fastball and curveball were both working pretty well today,” Douin said. “I was doing a pretty good job of picking my spots, I think, and Trent was doing a great job behind the plate for us. When it all comes together like that, it works out pretty well.”
Although Hermon entered the game with a losing record, Cony certainly didn’t take the Hawks lightly. The visitors, who had upset No. 7 Foxcroft in a prelim game Monday, entered Tuesday having won five of their last seven games. One of the two losses came by a single run to reigning state champion Ellsworth.
Cony will face another Penobscot Valley Conference foe Saturday regardless of who wins between Ellsworth (12-4) and John Bapst (9-7). Beating tough eastern Maine teams is a requirement of any KVAC team looking to get out of Class B North, a fact of which Plourde is well ware.
“I don’t care who you are; if you’re in that Bangor area and the surrounding area, you’re a good baseball team,” Plourde said. “It’s a baseball Mecca. We know that we’re going to play our best against those teams if we’re going to have a chance.”
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