Pershing powers Cougars to win

Apr. 26—ELNORA — The North Daviess Cougars used a three-hit night from senior Ocie Pershing to propel the Cougars to a 6-0 win over Linton on Friday in Cougar Valley.

Pershing had a dinger and a pair of double for four RBIs to provide the bulk of the Cougar offense. Lily Graber and Tori Smith combined for the shutout, while ND had just one error on defense,

"You know, our stats tonight were extremely similar to last night, but we had a totally different outcome. We had more timely hitting tonight. I thought we executed our bunts at crucial times when we needed it. We even had some hits. And our defense played extremely well behind our pitchers I thought our defense really buckled down and they had to and Lily and Tori did a good job getting ground balls and pop flys. I just get frustrated because we play really well tonight, nd then last night we didn't play well. And you know last night we had 11 hits. We gave away the game the first time we played North Knox, so we're hoping Monday we can solidify that dominance again," said ND coach Jodi Berry.

A pair of Miners reached in the first against Lily Graber, but neither did any damage. However, ND came up with a pair of runs in the bottom of the first. Alivia Dahair and Madalyn Knepp reached with singles. Pershing then doubled off the base of the left field fence scoring Dahair, while Knepp scored shortly after on a pass ball to make it 2-0. However, Linton pitcher Claire Stanton finished the inning with three straight Ks and got three straight more in the second as well.

In the top of he third, Linton put two runners on for the third straight inning, but Graber was able to retire the side after that to keep it 2-0.

But, just like the first inning, Dahair and Knepp reached, however this time Pershing made it to the other side of the fence for a three-run homer and a 5-0 lead.

North Daviess added a run in the bottom of the fourth as Summer Shands reached third and then scored on a fly ball to right, to make it 6-0.

Linton appeared to score in top of the fifth but the Miner runner failed to tag up and was called out, wasting a bases loaded opportunity.

Neither team was able to push across a run in the the sixth, as Cougar Tori Smith came on in relief in the top of the seventh and got the save in the 6-0 win.

ND takes on North Knox on Monday.