SOUTH CHINA -- Twice they rallied from deficits, but the third time, the Erskine Academy Eagles came up short.

Just short.

Second baseman Haley Rae drove home Christine Hill with a sacrifice fly to right field with one out in the ninth inning to give Belfast a 4-3 victory against the Eagles in a Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference Class B softball game on a sun-splashed Friday afternoon.

"It's very frustrating," said Erskine shortstop Ericka Malley, who went 2 for 4 with a triple and an RBI. "We were looking to go 3-0 this week, but we couldn't pull it out."

The Eagles, who dropped to 6-3, had their chances. They put runners on third base in the sixth and seventh innings but couldn't plate what would've been the winning run.

Losing pitcher Sam Morse, who went the distance in a gutsy performance, looked like she would send the Eagles home winners in the bottom of the seventh with the teams deadlocked at 3-3. She lined a deep drive to straight away center with two outs and Rachael Siegfriedt at third base, but Hill chased it down to force extra innings.

"We should've jumped on them in the beginning," said Morse, who struck out seven and recorded 12 groundball outs with a nice mix of pitches. "Our bats were good, but we just couldn't get one across."

The Lions, who beat Gardiner 8-7 in 10 innings on Wednesday, jumped out to a 2-0 lead with runs in the second and third. However, the Eagles bounced back, scoring two in the bottom of the third with two outs. Malley hit an RBI single and then came home on Morse's double.

Belfast (4-4) again went ahead with a run in the top of the fifth on Overlook's RBI double. But the Eagles again pulled even in the bottom of the inning on Morse's RBI groundout.

The teams traded zeroes on the scoreboard until the ninth, when Hill was hit by a Morse pitch to lead off the inning. She took second on a wild pitch, moved to third on a groundout to first and then sprinted home on the fly out.

"We held them in the seventh and eighth, and we had to push one across but we just couldn't do it," Erskine coach Mike Soule said. "We had a tough time getting the bats going today. We just couldn't do it today. We just couldn't put it together."

Overlook, a freshman, was sharp. Like Morse, she pitched the complete game. She relied on an array of offspeed pitches to keep the Eagles off-balanced. She stuck out just five, but three came in the eighth sandwiched around a walk.

"She had a quick windup and we couldn't adjust to it," Soule said.

Added Belfast coach Chris Bartlett: "She's a gamer. She had good control of her pitches."

Bill Stewart -- 623-3811, ext. 515

bstewart@centralmaine.com