Cougars sweep Bath, Shawnee

Van Wert independent sports

Van Wert enjoyed a home ACME baseball sweep over Bath and Shawnee on Thursday. One game lasted just five innings and featured a no-hitter, while the second game was a low scoring shutout.

Van Wert 15 Bath 0

Hayden Maples and Josh Halker held Bath hitless in a run-ruled, 15-0 summer league win. Maples pitched the first inning and struck out one, while Halker pitched the remaining four innings and fanned two.

Offensively, the Cougars scored 10 runs in the first inning. An RBI single by Maples plated Jake Lautzenheiser for the first run, then Maples scored on a single by Nathan Temple. Jalen McCracken gave Van Wert a 4-0 lead with a two-RBI single that scored Lawson Blackmore and Temple, then Keaton Brown rapped a single that plated Owen Treece.

McCracken scored on a wild pitch, then Ryan Hollingsworth’s hit scored Jaxson Amweg to give the Cougars a 7-0 advantage. Brown crossed home plate on a grounder by Lautzenheiser, Hollingsworth scored on an error, then Lennon Bartley closed the scoring with a sacrifice fly that plated Lautzenheiser.

The Cougars scored a pair of runs in the third – a single by Bartley that allowed Brown to cross home plate, then Lautzenheiser scored on a wild pitch.

The final three runs came in the fourth inning, when Treece and McCracken scored on the same error, then Amweg was plated by an RBI single by Brown.

Bartley, McCracken and Brown each finished with two RBI, and Brown led Van Wert with three hits. Lautzenheiser, Maples, McCracken and Amweg each had two hits.

Van Wert 3 Shawnee 0

Hayden Maples pitched a complete game one-hitter in the nightcap, and the Cougars blanked Shawnee 3-0.

Maples struck out nine and walked just one.

The game was scoreless until Van Wert struck for all three runs in the bottom of the fifth inning.

Maples singled and scored Levi Newell, then Lennon Bartley scored on a grounder by Ryan Hollingsworth. Nathan Temple’s RBI single scored Keaton Brown for the final margin.

Temple had two of Van Wert’s seven hits.

The Cougars (4-2) are scheduled to host Lincolnview today.