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West Central pitcher Jada Lawson smiles as catcher Myah Little brings her the ball during the seventh inning of a softball game against Jacksonville at Future Champions on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Dennis Mathes | Journal-Courier<\/p>\n
Freshman Jada Lawson threw a five-hitter and pitched her way out of a bases-loaded jam with one out in the seventh inning as the West Central softball team held on for an 8-7 win over Jacksonville at Future Champions on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
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West Central improved to 5-7 with its fourth win in the past five games. Jacksonville, coming off an impressive win over Decatur Eisenhower, fell to 5-9.<\/p>\n
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It was a big victory for Class 1A West Central against a Class 3A Jacksonville team in the midst of a turnaround season.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe made some errors and we were behind, and they came back and they fought, and that’s huge,\u201d Cougars coach Michelle Weber said. \u201cI think that they needed to see that, and they needed to feel that, so it’s huge for us going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been on a winning streak, and I\u2019m so glad to continue it,\u201d Lawson said. \u201cWe have really put it all together.\u201d<\/p>\n
West Central, which trailed 6-2 after two innings, went into the bottom of the seventh with an 8-6 lead.<\/p>\n
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The Crimsons did not go quietly. With one out, Jocelyn Smock singled. After Eva Jenkins reached on an error,\u00a0Malin Camerer singled to drive in Smock and cut the lead to one run.<\/p>\n
Alyvia Woods followed with a walk to load the bases with one out.<\/p>\n
But Lawson got out of it. She got ahead in the count and struck out Charlotte Sturgeon for the second out. Maggie Gerard, who started the game with a home run, was up next. Lawson slipped a strike past the Crimsons slugger, then got her to pop up to the pitcher to end the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was nervous, most definitely,\u201d Lawson said. \u201cI was just thinking to myself, it\u2019s going to be tough. But I just know that I have my sister and my friends and my whole team behind me, and I can trust them.\u201d<\/p>\n
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The home plate umpire was struck by a foul ball during the seventh and took a moment, giving Lawson a chance to catch her breath and talk with her infielders, including third baseman JJ Weber, and her sister, first baseman\u00a0Hallee Lawson, both of whom also pitch for the team.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey feed off of each other, and they’re all right there in the infield,\u201d Coach Weber said. \u201cAnd it’s fun to watch them regardless of who’s pitching. If the pitcher gets down, the other two are right there trying to bring her up.\u201d<\/p>\n
The tense final inning was the pinnacle of a game that featured plenty of ups and downs for both teams. The Cougars managed to navigate the highs and lows.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter that first inning of errors, I feel like they came together and they played very well,\u201d Coach Weber said. \u201cThey recently have been playing very well together, and it’s fun to watch.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\u201cI really enjoyed it because it really shows how mentally tough we are as a team,\u201d Lawson said.<\/p>\n
West Central scored a pair of runs in the first inning to take an early lead, but Jacksonville answered with three in the bottom half, then added three in the second to extend the lead to 6-2.<\/p>\n
The Cougars fought back, scoring three in the third and two more in the fourth to take a 7-6 lead.<\/p>\n
West Central scored both its runs in the fourth inning with two out. Lawson and\u00a0Weber both singled, and Kynlee Price was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Karlie Kendall reached on an error as Lawson and Weber crossed the plate.<\/p>\n
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The Cougars added an insurance run in the sixth, again with two out, as Weber doubled and scored on a single by Price to make it 8-6.<\/p>\n
Jacksonville committed seven errors that led to four unearned runs. West Central made four errors, allowing three unearned runs.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lawson settled down after the first two innings and shut out Jacksonville in the third, fourth, fifth and sixth innings.<\/p>\n
The first six players in West Central\u2019s batting order combined for 12 hits. Weber led the Cougars with three hits, and\u00a0Jada Lawson, Myah Little,\u00a0Price and\u00a0Kendall had two apiece. Lawson, Weber and Marissa Metz each hit a double.<\/p>\n
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Lawson finished with 12 strikeouts and six walks.<\/p>\n
Maci Moore led Jacksonville with two hits. Catcher Chase Neice stole two bases and scored a pair of runs. She fouled a ball off her foot in the fourth inning and had to be helped off the field.<\/p>\n
Kenzie Law took the loss, giving up eight runs (four earned) on 13 hits in seven innings of work. She struck out three and walked no one.<\/p>\n
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The Cougars will try to keep it going today (Thursday) as they return home to play undefeated\u00a0Triopia. First pitch is at 4:30 p.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"West Central pitcher Jada Lawson smiles as catcher Myah Little brings her the ball during the seventh inning…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":234484,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117,72633,110,104656],"class_list":["post-234483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-jacksonville-softball","tag-sports","tag-west-central-softball"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=234483"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234483\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/234484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=234483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=234483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=234483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}