HOLLY SPRINGS - Holly Springs' Erica Nunn, an imposing 5-foot-10 junior left-hander, tossed her fourth no-hitter in a 7-0 start this year with a 1-0 win over Apex Friday night on the Hawks' field.

The Hawks improved to 7-0 overall and 6-0 in the Tri-Nine Conference, while Apex dropped to 6-2 and 3-2.

Nunn struck out 17 batters against Apex, giving her 95 in 43 innings this season. She also has allowed only seven hits.

In earlier games, she had 15 strikeouts against Middle Creek, 12 (in five innings) against Wakefield, 15 against Lee County, 11 (in five) against Cary, 10 (in five) against Panther Creek and 15 against Fuquay-Varina.

Not bad for someone who says all she's trying to do is limit hitters to ground balls.

"I don't think about getting strikeouts," Nunn said. "I just try to get little dribblers for my defense to pick up and throw out runners. The strikeouts are a bonus."

The reason for the overwhelming strikeout performances is a riseball that she has added to her repertoire. Apex batters were consistently chasing high fastballs.

"It's something I started working on as a freshman, but it hasn't been effective until now," Nunn said. "My riseball was working really well and so were my curve and screwball. I didn't throw my changeup much because they caught up with it. I stayed with speed and mixed it high and low and in and out."

Apex managed four base runners in three different innings with two errors, a walk and a hit batter. But Nunn ended each of those potential rallies with strikeouts. In all, she struck out all nine batters at least once and six batters twice or more.

"We came here knowing it would be a tough game," Apex coach Bonnie Hodge said.

"We had stellar defense. We didn't lose the game on an error or bad pitching. We lost it on a bloop hit that we couldn't get to. That would have been a hit against any team. Other than that I thought we played a great game."

Apex pitcher Ashley Winters allowed only three hits until Holly Springs pushed across the game-winning run in the bottom of the sixth inning.

Junior Kayla Minyard singled to center field with one out and advanced to second base on a sacrifice bunt by Kayla Jordan. Then sophomore Giselle Ramos, the No. 9 hitter, slapped a twisting blooper behind first base that landed fair and skipped away from the fielders into foul territory. That allowed Minyard time to score from second base ahead of the throw home.

Nunn said the Hawks are playing with a more aggressive mentality this year under new coach Jill Minchick.

"We definitely have a lot of talent," said Minchick, who spent the last six years as the coach at Smithfield-Selma. "We try to challenge our girls to take their games to the next level."