SOSO – The West Jones Mustangs edged the Lawrence County HighCougars 4-3 in high school baseball action Saturday night. TheMustangs squeezed home the winning run in the bottom of the seventhto get a win.

With the win, West Jones improved to 3-2 overall while LawrenceCounty fell to 3-2. First-year Lawrence County head coach ChrisClark was disappointed with the loss, but pleased with his club’seffort.

“It hurts to lose such a tight, tough game,” Clark Said. “ButI’m proud of the way our kids battled. We were down for most of theday to a quality opponent, but our guys battled back and gavethemselves a chance to win at the game. We needed to make a fewmore plays, both offensively and defensively.”

Clark was particularly complimentary of junior left-hander DustyLadd. Ladd went the full seven innings. He scattered nine hits andstruck out four.

“Dusty pitched well enough to win,” Clark said. “He may havedeserved a better fate.”

West Jones put together three hits to take a 1-0 lead in thebottom of the second. The inning would have been a lot worse forthe Cougars had it not been for a great inning-ending catch by leftfielder Nathan Evans. Evans went high up against the wall to takeaway what would have been a three-run double.

Evans knotted the game at 1-1 in the top of the third when hisinfield single plated Will Dawney. In the bottom of the third,however, West Jones scored two more to take a 3-1 lead.

It stayed that way until the top of the sixth when Evans led offwith a mammoth homer to left field. That made it 3-2. After a CoryRogers infield single, pinch runner Michael Thompson stole his wayaround the bases and eventually scored on an errant throw to tiethe game at 3-3.

When Dawsey and Tyler Ball were hit with pitches to start thetop of the seventh, the Cougars appeared to be in command. Mustangrighty Matt Hopkins pitched his way out to it however and theMustangs pulled it out in the bottom of the seventh. A throwingerror, a single an intentional walk and a perfect squeeze bunt didthe trick.

West Jones won the junior varsity game by a 6-1 score.

Lawrence County will return home to host Loyd Star Tuesdaynight.