The Cougars, 34-19, opened the tourney defeating 
The two wins Friday puts the Cougars into a 10 a.m. winner’s bracket contest against
WNCC coach Maria Winn-Ratliff was impressed with the team’s long ball hitting. “Five home runs is nice, obviously, but we would take a bunch of doubles as well,” she said. “Some big things happened in the games and some kids stepped up. We hope they can carry it over to our games [today].”
The way the team came back against Lamar was huge. The team led 5-2 heading into the seventh inning only to see the Runnin’ Lopes notch two 3-run home runs to grab an 8-5 lead. WNCC came back with two home runs of its own in the
bottom of the frame.
Bourdon led off by drawing a walk. Then, with one out, Ventoza rocketed a shot over the centerfield fence to cut the deficit to 8-7. Three batters later and with two outs, Eichelberger delivered the killer hit, sky-rocketing a shot over the left-field fence for the game winner.
“I thought we hit real well. We started out the Lamar game, jumping out on top and then fizzled out a little bit,” Winn-Ratliff said. “We then showed up to play and swung the bats in the seventh inning.”
Jessica Pexton picked up the win pitching the final two-thirds inning in relief of Natasha Dypchey. Pexton got the final two Lamar batters on a sacrifice and a strikeout. Dypchey went 6 1/3 with three strikeouts and three walks to get the no-decision.
WNCC had five players record multiple hits. Ventoza, Hensley and Ryman each went 2-for-3, while McNabb and Eichelberger went 2-for-4. Ventoza finished the game with three runs scored, two RBIs and a home run, while Hensley went two runs scored, an RBI and a double. Ryman had two RBIs and two singles, followed by McNabb with two runs scored, two RBIs and a double, and Eichelberger with two RBIs, a run scored and a home run.
WNCC’s strong hitting in the Lamar contest was a carryover from the tourney opener against McCook, where they pounded out 17 hits, including eight extra base dingers. In that contest, McCook grabbed a 3-0 lead on a home run, only to see the Cougars come back with eight runs in the third inning.
Torimaru started things with a towering 3-run home run followed by a Bourdon solo shot. The Cougars capped off the scoring on a Ventoza run-scoring double. WNCC added four more runs in the fifth inning on a McNabb 3-run home run and a Torimaru run-scoring double,
Pexton picked up the win, scattering seven hits, while striking out six and walking four.
Six Cougars finished with multiple hit games. Ventoza and Torimaru finished with 3-for-4 efforts. Ventoza had two runs scored and a double, while Torimaru had four RBIs, two doubles and a home run.
Also collecting two hits were Hensley, Eichelberger, McNabb and Bourdon. Hensley had two runs scored and three RBIs, Eichelberger had a double and runs scored, McNabb finished with two runs scored, three RBIs and a home run, and Bourdon had two runs scored, an RBI, a double and home run.
Other scores in the regional tournament included
McCook 003 020 — 5 7
WNCC 008 041 — 13 17
WP — Pexton, 2B — Torimaru 2, Ventoza, Bourdon, Eichelberger; HR — Torimaru, Bourdon, McNabb.
Second Game
Lamar 000 011 6 — 8 6 1
WNCC (34-19) 203 000 4 — 9 10 2
WP — Pexton; 2B — McNabb,Ventoza, Hensley; HR — Ventoza, Eichelberger.
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