BATH

The Morse High School softball team entered Monday’s Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference matchup with 2-1 Oceanside having scored 34 runs while beginning the season with a perfect 3-0 mark.

However, according to Shipbuilders coach Will Laffely, his team had yet to see a pitcher like Oceanside’s Chloe Jones.

The Mariners righty was dominant from the start, holding Morse without a hit for 4 2/3 innings and finishing with a four-hit 7-0 shutout, leaving both teams with 3-1 records.

“We played Marshwood and Massabesic in the preseason, and those pitchers might be as fast as her, but she has great movement and a great changeup,” said Laffely, whose Shipbuilders go right back at it today at home against Medomak Valley. “We knew coming into here that she was a quality pitcher. We are a better quality hitting team than we showed.”

“She has been a heck of a pitcher for me over the last three years, and she is a little bit off on her fastball, but she can bring it along with other pitches,” said longtime Oceanside manager Rusty Worcester after watching Jones strike out 12 Morse hitters.

Through the first two frames, it appeared to be a battle of mound aces, as Morse hurler Dory Kulis worked around a leadoff single by Oceanside’s Abby Veilleux in the first. The Mariners went down 1-2-3 in the second as the game went to the third inning scoreless.

Freshman second baseman Jessica Watkinson walked to open the Oceanside third. With one out, she stole second and continued to third on a Morse throwing error. Kulis picked up the second out with a strikeout, but Veilleux ripped her second single to drive in Watkinson for a 1-0 lead.

Jones struck out the side in the first and second frames, permitting only a two-out walk to Paige Faulkingham. Jones set the Shipbuilders down in order in the third, ending the frame with her seventh punchout.

Big fourth

Oceanside pulled away in the fourth. A one-out error put Casey Pine on base, and Kalli Grover singled to left field. Grace Woodman followed with an RBI double to the fence in right-center field.

Up stepped Watkinson, who had worked on her swing during batting practice prior to the game. She struggled to find her swing, but found it at the right time, sending a Kulis pitch to the fence in center field for a two-run double and a 4-0 Oceanside lead.

“I was trying to swing as hard as I could and time it, and I was able to nail it there,” said Watkinson, who was 1-for-2 with a walk.

“She had a walk-off base hit against Medomak, so it has been a big confidence thing for her as a freshman. She is a battler, runs the bases real well. She is a player,” Worcester said.

Micailah Albertson delivered Morse’s first hit — a two-out double just inside the left-field line. But Jones stranded her and worked around singles by Maddy Mitchell and Sierra Wallace in the sixth to keep her team ahead by four runs.

The Mariners put the game away in the seventh. Jones singled sharply with one out, and Hannah Moholland doubled off the centerfield fence, with pinch runner Lily Judecki scoring all the way from first.

Pine applied the dagger, launching a two-run home run over the right-center field fence for a 7-0 lead.

“We carry six freshmen, and a lot of times have four playing, so it is big for them,” said Worcester. “It is a big step playing this caliber of ball. I am happy for them.”

Morse needs to refocus quickly, with Medomak Valley coming to Bath at 4 p.m. on today.

“We need to focus on hitting the ball, as Medomak Valley has a pair of good pitchers,” said Laffely. “I don’t know what I will be doing with pitching, as I haven’t used Marissa (Parks) at all yet. If she is able, I will probably come back with Dory again.”

Kulis stuck out 11, walked two and allowed eight hits in going the distance for Morse.