APEX – Before taking its at-bat in the bottom of the fourth inning while trailing Western Harnett 2-0 Saturday, Apex baseball coach Mike Valder held an impromptu meeting with his charges in front of the Cougars’ dugout.

The message?

“I felt like we had not even shown up to play,” Valder said. “I said to them, we’ve wasted three innings and they had to figure out how to be successful from this point on, and that meant them having to make some adjustments.”

It got through. After having one baserunner through three innings, the Cougars got two in the fourth and were able to push them both across the plate. They scored five more runs over the next two innings and finished the Four Oaks Bank Tri-Eight Challenge with a 7-3 win over the Eagles.

“It was hard for us to adjust in the beginning three innings, but after we all saw it once, we adjusted to it to and hit it pretty good,” said first baseman Houston Hawley, who went 2-for-4 with two singles and two RBIs.

“[Valder] just told us we had to pick up the enthusiasm. We’d already wasted three innings by not doing anything. We had to come out more enthusiastic and start hitting the ball.”

Sophomore right hander Dylan Edwards dialed in after a shaky first inning to get the win. After allowing two runs in the top of the first, Edwards threw four scoreless innings and retired 12 of the final 14 hitters he faced.

After Western Harnett’s first four plate appearances, the Eagles had a 2-0 lead. But Edwards’ confidence was never shaken, nor was it while he watched from the bench as he failed to get any run support through three innings.

“My mechanics were a little bit off, but I kept battling and just grinded it out,” said Edwards, who allowed two runs on four hits in five innings pitched.

“I just had to keep throwing to give my team a chance. I knew they would score some runs and we’d get the win.”

But it certainly didn’t look that way early. Western Harnett pitcher J.T. Howington needed just 29 pitches to get through the first three innings, where leadoff hitter Theo Bacot was the only Cougar to reach base (he had a single and a double in his first two at-bats).

Apex (8-3) figured out Howington in the fourth, though. With one out, shortstop Chris Diaz drew a walk. He stole second then moved to third on a balk. Diaz then scored on Harry Voorhees’ sacrifice fly.

Next up, Christian Roll drew a walk. He stole second, and then stole third as Ryne Frankoff drew a walk. As Frankoff raced to first, he rounded the bag and got himself in a rundown going for second.

Western Harnett focused on Frankoff, which allowed Roll to score the tying run from third.

By the end of the inning, Apex had forced Howington to throw 32 pitches.

In the fifth, the Cougars patience at the plate continued (Western reliever Aaron Byrd threw 25 pitches in the frame) and resulted in three more runs and a 5-2 lead.

After Edwards and Bacot drew back-to-back walks, Hawley smacked a single up the middle to score Edwards. Bacot was tagged out in a rundown going for home.

“My first two at-bats, I felt like I was trying to crush it as hard as I could and I was taking my eye off [the ball],” Hawley said. “I was telling myself, make sure I see it all the way through, and I just hit one back up the middle.”

Later in the inning, Voorhees drove in two runs when a long fly ball got caught up in a swirling wind and Western Harnett’s left fielder could not make a play on it.

Apex tacked on two more runs in the six. Relief pitcher Ben Scerri scored on an error, and Hawley drove in Edwards with his second hit of the day to put the Cougars ahead comfortably, 7-3.

Frankoff tossed a nearly flawless seventh (two strikeouts) to give Apex some momentum heading into next week, where match-ups with Green Hope and Fuquay-Varina loom.

“We’ve got a good taste back in our mouths,” Valder said.

“We had dropped two going into [Friday] and both of them were, in my opinion, pretty tough losses. With Tuesday, Wednesday ahead of us with Green Hope and Fuquay, we needed some positives to work from. … My message to the guys earlier in the week was our best baseball is still ahead of us.”

The win over Western Harnett was the second in the round-robin tournament for Apex. The Cougars also defeated Garner on Friday by the 5-2 score, but fell on Thursday to Holly Springs, 7-5.