East Lyme — Of the many story lines Thursday, the one that seemed to outshine the others — at least for the first six innings — was the pitching of Wheeler High School pitcher Jenn Paride, who struck out 16 East Lyme hitters in the most pressure-filled situations.

Bases full of East Lyme runners with nobody out in the third inning? Paride responded with three straight strikeouts. Vikings on second and third with one out and the top of the order at bat in the fourth? Paride struck out the next two hitters.

Then came the bottom of the seventh.

The Vikings, playing at home, scratched out a run for a 3-2 victory that stole the spotlight away from Paride and the previously unbeaten Lions and put it back on a resolute, young East Lyme team which has gone 7-1 to start the season.

Kaylie Crosby and Mikaela LoPriore singled in the seventh for East Lyme and freshman Nicole Bowen, who struck out twice early in the game, came back with a ground ball to shortstop Sam Muller, who tried to flip to third for the force out. The ball was bobbled, however, and trickled just far enough away to allow Crosby to race home with the winning run.

Crosby and LoPriore each struck out in their previous at-bat.

“I think both times you come to the plate ready to hit,” said LoPriore, also the winning pitcher. “But the last time everyone was up and cheering. We were ready to end it. … (Bowen) was awesome. I'm proud of her. She was nervous.”

“I learned that most of the kids didn't get down on themselves.” East Lyme coach Judy Deeb said.

Paride, a senior, continued a week in which she topped another Eastern Connecticut Conference Large Division program in Ledyard, 1-0, and pitched a perfect game against Killingly. ECC Small Division representative Wheeler, which also had junior catcher Raven Houck give a verbal commitment this week to play in college at Division I Penn, was 7-0 entering Thursday's game.

East Lyme scored twice in the first inning, getting a walk to Alexis Bell and a double to the left field corner by LoPriore. Alex Marsh then sliced a two-out single through the infield to score courtesy runner Alexandra Chambers.

Wheeler, though, scored a run in the second on a double steal, with Micaela Bergel drawing the throw to second while Kendra Perez raced home with the run.

The Lions made it 2-2 in the fifth when Nikki Collins led off the inning with a double to the right-center field gap, took third on a ground out by Lena Curland and scored on a ground ball to second base by Houck.

East Lyme still had a few things going for it, however.

LoPriore, for one, in her first season on the varsity, didn't allow another hit after Collins' double.

The Vikings' defense has spent plenty of time taking practicing on their home infield, which is prone to bad bounces.

And with Crosby as a baserunner in the seventh, East Lyme had perhaps the one runner who could score when the ball inched past the Wheeler third baseman.

Crosby had five assists at shortstop, accounting for all three outs in the first inning, and Marsh cut off a ground ball, preventing a possible hit, for the final out of the seventh, capping a one-two-three inning that sent the Vikings to the dugout with the momentum.

It's an East Lyme team which has only one player, Crosby, returning to the same position as last season.

“We've been working a lot on defense, spending a lot of time working on it, just to keep us in the game,” Deeb said. “Let them hit the ball and our defense will have to make the plays.”

“The first inning was horrible,” said Paride, who will play next season at Dominican College. “After that we had bases loaded and no outs, I was happy we got out of it. The fastball (was working), the curveball and I got a couple strikes on my changeup. … I think we gave them a run for their money. Hopefully, we'll just keep doing that.”

v.fulkerson@theday.com

Twitter: @vickieattheday