ANTWERP -- The Van Wert Lady Cougars traveled north up St. Rt. 49 to face the Lady Archers from Antwerp for the second time in three days. Van Wert squeaked out a narrow 2-1 victory, while only recording two hits. With the victory, the Cougars run their record to 11-4 overall, while remaining at 2-2 in the Western Buckeye League. Whitney Parrish led off the game drawing a base on balls. Morgan Williams followed with a sacrifice bunt to move Parrish over to second who then stole third base. Jesse McClellan ripped a shot back up the middle for the RBI. McClellan stole second base where she was left stranded. Van Wert scored again in the top half of the sixth when Williams reached by an Antwerp error, and then she was replaced with a pinch-runner (Ashley Harshman). Harshman went to second on a passed ball and with two outs McClellan smashed a triple for the game-winning run. The Archers didn't quit though, as Arnold lead off the bottom of the sixth with a walk and moved to second on a wild pitch. Two strike-outs later, Riebersal was hit by a pitch. Kortokrax then laced a single to left field for an RBI and went onto second on the throw to the infield. With the tying and winning runs in scoring position, Van Wert forced a ground-out to end that threat. In the bottom of the seventh, Antwerp threatened again. This time pitcher Bryn Schlatter hit a one-out single and then a pinch-runner reached second base on a wild pitch. But the Cougars recovered, getting back to back strike-outs to end the game. Williams had the mound duties, going the distance and surrendering the one earned run. She walked one, while striking out 10 Lady Archers. She had one hit-batsman. Van Wert will travel to Celina tonight to take on the Lady Bulldogs in Western Buckeye League action starting at 5:00 p.m.
