For the second time in as many games, the Lady Mustangs braved the wet and the cold. But this time they also had to brave a late barrage of Cleveland hits before putting the clamps on a 10-2 District 5-AAA win.

“We got two good pitching efforts today. Sidney (Hooper and Lauren (Lawson) both did a great job,” said Walker Valley coach Lauren Linburg.

The Lady Mustangs opened with a bang sending nine batters to the plate and scoring four runs. Laurel Allen led off with a triple to start the five-hit inning. Sidney Hooper — who also got the pitching win — and Kayla Sewell followed with a single and double. Leslie Still and Rachel Percy also singled to give the Lady Mustangs a 4-0 lead.

Hooper picked up her fourth win for Walker Valley giving up only two hits in five innings. The sophomore righty struck out seven Lady Raiders and walked only one. Lawson took over in the fifth for Hooper and worked the final two innings for the Lady Mustangs holding Walker Valley to two runs.

Yoshi Hooks took the loss for Cleveland in a seven-inning effort. Hooks fanned two and walked two while giving up 10 hits.

Walker Valley (4-4, 2-0 District 5-AAA) scored one more in the second on an error and single, then added some insurance in the fourth to make it 7-0.

Cleveland (2-6, 1-2 5-AAA) broke up the shutout with a run in the top of the fifth. Yoshi Hooks walked with one out and scored on a Karli Bledsoe double to center field.

“We got some good hits today, but we waited too late. We didn’t do a good job of getting our bunts down and that hurt us,” said Cleveland coach Connie Stobert. “We played a solid game on defense. We have had a lot of errors, but today we played much better.”

The Lady Mustangs snatched back the momentum in the bottom half of the inning with three big hits. Walker Valley used the bats of Morgan Elrod, Ashley Lewis and Allen to take a nine-run lead. Elrod’s single in front of Lewis’ double set up the inning finale for Allen. The Walker Valley center-fielder hammered the final nails with a two-out, two-run home run over the center-field fence to run the score to 10-1.

The bats of the Lady Raiders came to life in the sixth with Taylor Yoders’ double and in the seventh with three consecutive hits. Hooks, Jacora Parker and Alison Simpson banged out singles to put the final run on the board. From there, it took a diving catch by center fielder Allen to keep Cleveland off the board again and seal the 10-2 win.

“She saved at least two runs. She is so fast and is not afraid to go after the ball,” said Linburg.

The Lady Mustangs bagged their bats afterward and hit the road to Brentwood this morning for a weekend tournament. The Lady Raiders will use the weekend for a little tune-up time before hosting Ooltewah Tuesday.

LADY MUSTANGS 10, LADY RAIDERS 2

Cleveland 000 010 1 — 2 9 1

Walker Valley 410 230 X — 10 10 1

WP: Sidney Hooper (4-1), 5 IP, 2 H 7 Ks. LP: Yoshi Hooks. HR: Laurel Allen (WV). 3B: Allen (WV). 2B: Jacora Parker, Taylor Yoder (C); Kayla Sewell 2, Ashley Lewis (WV). Other highlights: Parker 2-3 (C); Allen 2-3, Sewell 3-4 (WV). Records: Cleveland 2-6, 1-2 District 5-AAA; Walker Valley 4-4, 2-0 5-AAA.