WAKE FOREST— For Apex softball head coach Bonnie Hodge, there was no doubt her Cougars were going to hold on and defeat the other Cougars from Wake Forest-Rolesville last Friday night in the second round of the NCHSAA 4-A playoffs.

Apex had jumped out to a commanding 5-0 lead in the third inning, but with two outs in the bottom of the seventh the Cougars from the southern end of Wake County were up 6-5 and WF-R had the tying run on second base.

Jordan Scarboro was at the plate and on deck was Lauren Autry, a .500 hitter. Apex junior pitcher Natalie Klemann, who saw WF-R score three times in the inning to erase a 6-2 Apex lead, appeared calm and collected on the mound as she tried for her 14th win of the season.

Klemann held her ground, forced Scarboro to hit the ball right to her, and then calmly tossed the ball to senior first baseman Kelcey Mancinito end the game with a 6-5 victory.

Apex (18-2) travels to West Johnston, a 2-1 winner over Person County, on Tuesday for a third round matchup. WF-R, who lost to Apex 8-1 in the second round last year, finished its season at 17-3.

“We’ve been in a lot of one-run games, and that helped us deal with any pressure,” said Hodge, whose team finished in second place in the Tri-8 conference behind Fuquay-Varina. “Klemann has been cool all year.”

Apex did most of its damage in the third inning when it jumped out to the 5-0 lead.

Mackenzie Randall got on base with an infield hit, and then went to second on a passed ball. Senior Amanda Higgins nailed a hard single to right field to drive in Randall for the Cougars second run of the contest.

Samantha Slade, who has three homers on the season, singled, putting runners on first and second. Apex then caught a break.

Senior Melanie Kirchhoff hit the ball back to WF-R pitcher Kelly Holding, setting up the double play that would end the inning with WF-R trailing just 2-0. However, the WF-R third baseman missed the throw from Holding, allowing Higgins to score and Slade to get to third.

Power hitter Jordan Barkes then smashed a two-RBI double to left-center to give Apex the 5-0 advantage. Barkes had scored the Cougars first run when Mancini drove her in with a double in the second frame.

“I think we capitalized on their error and from there things got rolling,” Hodge said. “We really gained some momentum from that point on.”

Apex surrendered two runs in the bottom half of the third as WF-R bats came alive. Erica Fairchild and Kacey Tilley both got hits and scored, while Kiah Ruffin smacked an RBI double.

Apex added its sixth run, the game-winner, in the sixth inning. Randall (3-for-5) singled and then later scored on Kirchhoff’s bloop single into right field. Apex had loaded the bases in the fifth but were unable to score.

Tilley, Fairchild and Myah Smith all scored with two outs for WF-R in the wild seventh inning.

WF-R coach Doug Kinsman felt his Cougars were close to advancing.

“We had everything we could have wanted to get it to extra’s, with Jordan (Scarboro) up and Lauren (Autry) waiting on deck,” said Kinsman, whose Cougars are 96-0 in the Cap-Seven conference since 2002. “We feel snakebit, we haven’t beaten Apex on this field since 2003.”

Austin Kearns tripled for Apex, which reached the fourth round of the state playoffs in 2008 before falling to Durham Riverside.

Klemann (14-2) notched six strikeouts, while catcher Holly Sears threw out a WF-R runner attempting to steal.

If Apex and Fuquay-Varina both win in the third round it will set up the third Cougars vs. Bengals battle of the season in the East semifinals.