The Cougars moved into the fourth round of the NCHSAA 4-A softball playoffs — and a win away from a trip to Walnut Creek for the state Final Four — Tuesday night with a 3-0 win over West Johnston. Apex (19-2) will take on the winner of Wednesday’s Fuquay-Varina and Garner game in a fourth round game on Friday night.

Apex’s steady improvement on Tuesday night showed at the plate, on the mound and in the field.

“We just had a good, solid night, played a complete game,” said Cougar coach Bonnie Hodge. “We caught onto what they were doing on the mound and adjusted and Natalie [Klemann] kept getting better. And we played great defense behind her.”

The Cougars went to the lead in the fifth when Holly Sears doubled, moved to third on a groundout and courtesy runner Elizabeth Margaglotti came home on a single to left by Amanda Higgins.

An inning later, Melanie Kirchoff reached on a wild pitch despite striking out, then moved into scoring position on a one-out ground out by teammate Kelsey Mancini. Erin Ross followed with a clutch single to left field for a 2-0 Apex lead.

Three pitches later, Alston Kearns doubled to the wall in center field, scoring Ross from first base.

“We did a good job of picking up the pitches we wanted to hit,” Hodge said of her team’s approach against West standout sophomore pitcher Lexi Betancourt. “We were looking for the rise ball and the change up. We were getting caught by a lot of her curves in the early going.”

Klemann scattered three hits on the night but was at her best once the Cougars claimed the lead. She retired the final nine West Johnston batters on order in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings.

Klemann struck out five batters on the night and benefitted from her teammates’ error-free night in the field. Third baseman Jordan Barkes was key to that defensive effort.

Barkes thwarted West’s continual early attempts to start something with a bunt. She handled all six grounders her way with no problem and nabbed a pop up as well, taking part in seven of the Wildcat outs on the night.

West had threatened to score in the bottom of the fourth when Kelsey Lesnicky walked with two outs, then moved into scoring position on a single to left by Alyssa Brewer.

But Kirchhoff, the Apex left fielder, caught Lesnicky rounding too far around second base and threw to shortstop Samanatha Slade who tagged the Wildcat baserunner before she could get back to the bag for the third out of the inning.