SOUTH PARIS — It was an afternoon of bash and dash for the Oxford Hills softball team Monday.

The Vikings won their sixth straight game using a little long ball and a whole lot of the short game in a 7-1 win over Edward Little.

Oxford Hills mixed a variety of squeeze bunts in nicely with a three-run triple by Breanna Martin to keep its winning ways going.

“She had a nice shot,” Oxford Hills coach Cindy Goddard said of Martin’s hit during a five-run fifth inning. “We had the short game score a few on bunts. I thought Bre’s hit gave us the insurance hit. It was the final punch of that inning.”

While Martin drove in three runs with her hit, Crystal West, Ashley West and Abby Bernier all drove in runs with bunts. Haleigh Robinson added an RBI single.

“We’re hitting better and producing more,” said Martin. “The squeeze bunt, when something as small as that can produce a run like that, it’s huge. Whatever works, you go with it.”

EL (3-9)  couldn’t get the offense going. The Red Eddies had two hits in the first and came up empty. They only managed three more hits the rest of the way.  West struck out six and didn’t allow a run until a Danny Rock RBI single plated Melissa Paione in the sixth.

“They weren’t hitting the inside corner very well,” said West. “So I knew if I could get it in there, it would help a lot more.”

EL opened the game with hits by Kennedy Hubbard and Kory Norcross with only one out. West got out of the inning with a pair of fly outs.

“I just had to relax and trust my teammates that they’d back me up,” said West.

The Vikings (8-2) took a 1-0 lead in the second when Martin reached on an error and Robinson singled her in.

“We just aren’t as experienced as some teams,” said EL coach Elaine Derosby, whose team has just one senior and two juniors in the starting lineup. “We’ve played Erskine, Bangor and Oxford Hills tough and got nothing to show for it. We’ve given up 17 runs to those three teams and only four have been earned.”

The Vikings broke the game open in the fifth, taking advantage of two more EL errors.  West made it 2-o with a fielder’s choice on a squeeze bunt. Then with the bases loaded, Martin ripped a triple to center. That came after a couple of mighty foul balls that foreshadowed things to come.

“When you foul it off like that, you’re not off on your control but off on your timing,” said Martin. “So it’s just holding off for a little longer.”

Bernier plated another with a squeeze bunt to make it 6-0. EL got its only run with two hits in the sixth. Oxford Hills added one in the bottom of the inning when Ashley West plated a run with a fielder’s choice.

“Right now, we’ve played three of the top six teams really tough,” said Derosby. “We’ve given up a lot of unearned runs. Putting freshmen and sophomore in situations at the varsity level, they’re playing like freshmen and sophomores.  They just haven’t been in enough pressure situations in their softball careers for us to expect them to be able to perform all the time.”

[email protected]