As good as Apex pitcher Natalie Klemann was on Friday, all the Lady Bengals needed was a one-run first inning to hold onto the 1-0 win.

Klemann was dominant, retiring 15 of the last 16 batters she faced, and allowing just three baserunners on the day. But the Cougars (17-7) ran into their kryptonite in the quarterfinals, falling to Fuquay for the third time this year — the second time by one run.

"We knew that when we were playing them it would be a really good game," Fuquay pitcher Alex Ryan said. "It's kind of a relief to be past [them]. It gave us a lot of motivation to have to play them again since our games are always close."

Ryan, a senior, nearly matched Klemann pitch-for-pitch en route to the win.

Ryan struck out 10, but whereas Klemann gave up Fuquay's only two hits in the first and got better as the game went along, Ryan hit rough waters in the final two innings.

After allowing just one hit in the first five innings, Ryan gave up two in the sixth before intentionally walking Samantha Slade to load the bases.

But clean-up hitter Melanie Kirchhoff struck out swinging, which sent an elated Ryan running to the dugout where she knocked over catcher Alyssa White from all the jubilation.

"I knew that with her under pressure and everybody else under pressure that she'd probably bite on a ball," Ryan said.

In the seventh, Ryan watched as first baseman Ashley Canova booted a ball in Buckner-esque fashion to put the tying run on with one out.

The next batter, Erin Ross, looped a short fly ball to right field but still couldn't advance the runner as right fielder Jacqueline Jones gunned down a hesitant Elizabeth Margagiotti, who was in to pinch-run, at second.

Two batters later, third baseman Hannah Wallace fielded a ground ball and fired it over to first for the final out, sending the Bengal crowd into a frenzy.

"Since the sixth inning I've had permanent goose bumps and I kept telling myself to calm down the whole time," Ryan said. "It's not really real yet, but we're all excited."

Fuquay coach Deb Clarke, who has led her team to the playoffs in every season at the school and won the conference in all but one, said she didn't necessarily expect this year's team to reach such heights.

"We always set high expectations like a conference championship and getting to the playoffs," Clarke said. "Once we got the conference championship we just kept going game-by-game."

Clarke said she and her 2000 final four team were both overwhelmed once making it to the final four, but didn't see that happening this year even as the Bengals (20-4) start four freshmen.

"I don't think that's going to be the case with this team," Clarke said. "I don't know if they're going to get surprised by the awe or being at Walnut Creek or the size of the teams, we're just going to play it."