Cougar baseball team wins two more

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent sports editor

ELIDA — The Van Wert Cougars are off to a sparkling 9-0 start to the baseball season, after a pair of hard fought 7-4 victories over Napoleon and Elida Saturday at Ed Sandy Field at Elida Middle School.

“Both of them were definitely battles, and we had to grind through them,” Van Wert head coach Charlie Witten said. “We executed in key situations in both games, and came out with two victories.”

In the opening game, Napoleon struck quickly by scoring two runs in the first, but the Cougars came back to score three of their own in the bottom of the inning.

With one out, Nick Gutierrez reached first on an error, then advanced to third on a single to left by Caleb Fetzer. With runners at the corners, Nathan Temple reached first on a ground ball error, scoring Gutierrez. After a Jonathon Lee fly out, James Acquavia hit a single that scored Fetzer and tied the game at two. Holden Willingham came up and belted a line drive single to right field, scoring Temple.

The Cougars plated three more runs in the second inning. A double by Fetzer scored Mason Carr, then Gutierrez and Fetzer scored on Temple’s one out single to left field.

The Wildcats scored a pair of runs in the fourth to trim the deficit to 6-4, but the Cougars added an insurance run in the fifth, when Willingham scored on a ground out by Darris Eddins.

Willingham picked up the win on the mound–-in four innings, he gave up all four Napoleon runs (two earned) on nine hits, while striking out three. Fetzer worked the final three innings and earned the save, giving up two hits and striking out four.

The Cougars needed all seven innings to notch against a win against the second opponent of the day, the Elida Bulldogs.

Clinging to a 5-4 lead in the top of the seventh, Temple scored on a one-out sacrifice fly by Acquaviva. Eddins singled after that, then scored on a single to left field by Hayden Maples, who also earned the save by pitching the final 1.2 innings, and giving up one hit.

Jake Lautzenheiser earned the win, going 5.1 innings, allowing four runs on five hits, striking out four and walking four.

Trailing 1-0 in the top of the fourth, Van Wert managed three runs. Fetzer scored on a single by Temple to tie the game at one, then after a walk by Lee, Temple scored on a line drive by Acquaviva. Lee scored on a hit by Eddins to make it 3-1.

The Bulldogs countered with a run in the fourth, but the Cougars scored in the fifth, when Fetzer crossed home plate on a wild pitch, making it 4-2. Napoleon tied the game with a two-run double in the bottom of the fifth, but Gutierrez singled in the top of the sixth, scoring Lautzenheiser and giving Van Wert a 5-4 advantage.

Witten admitted after the games that he didn’t say much to his team.

“I think they’re taking the right approach,” Witten said. “They’ve won nine games by going out and executing, and doing the things they need to do.”

The Cougars will play at Fairview today.

Box scores:

Napoleon 200 200 0–-4
Van Wert 330 010 x–-7

Van Wert 000 311 2–-7
Elida         100 120 0–-4