The CAM Cougars baseball team had a nail biting 4-3 win over the Woodbury Central Wildcats through 9 innings on Tuesday. Both starting pitchers were sharp at the start of the game with Eric McGill for the Wildcats throwing high velocity pitches and Makade Paulsen sticking to a diverse arsenal of pitch types. The game stayed scoreless through the first two innings with neither side making much progress at the plate. The bottom of the third inning saw the first run come in for Woodbury Central as Joe Destigter hit an RBI single putting the Wildcats up 1-0. CAM responded in the top of the fourth with back to back RBI’s from Jack Follmann and Brody Paulsen giving the Cougars a 2-1 lead.

Woodbury Central tied the ballgame at 2-2 in the bottom of the fifth thanks to a sharply hit RBI grounder off of Destigter. Then in the top of the sixth CAM had the advantage again with a run scoring by a badly thrown error at first base. Making the score 3-2 for CAM. The Wildcats would rally in the bottom of the sixth with Jayden Lloyd hitting an RBI grounder at first base tying things up at 3-3.

The game then stayed at a 3-3 deadlock til the top of the ninth. It was then Makade Paulsen hit a triple towards right field putting the go ahead run 90 feet away. Lukas James was then walked, putting runners on the corner and Kegan Croghan smacked a sac fly out towards center field making it a 4-3 ball game. In the bottom of the ninth, the Wildcats loaded the bases with two outs, but ended the game on a groundout.

Cougars Head Coach Drew Ticknor acknowledged his team’s backbone as being key for their victory on Tuesday night.

CAM had solid performances from multiple players like Jack Follmann going 1-3 with an RBI and Lukas James relief pitching for 3 innings giving up 1 earned run, 3 hits, and 2 strikeouts.

The Cougars next game will be on Saturday night for the district championship against Coon Rapids-Bayard. Coach Ticknor wants to see strong performances at the plate.

Woodbury Central’s loss ends their season at a record of 19-8.