The Westland High School baseball team entered the final stretch of regular season looking to build some momentum for the Division I district tournament.

The tournament draw is today.

The Cougars were 6-9 overall and 0-8 in the OCC-Central Division before playing Central Crossing last Thursday. Westland will play host to Hilliard Darby on Monday, at Central Crossing on Wednesday and Worthington Kilbourne on Thursday and at home against Thomas Worthington on Friday.

The Cougars snapped a four-game losing streak with a 4-1 win over Briggs last Tuesday.

Chad Helsel was the winning pitcher.

Westland's struggles in the league, however, continued last Wednesday as host Thomas beat the Cougars 8-1. Sean Clutter doubled in the seventh and scored on Jose Reyes' single for Westland's lone run. The Cougars managed just five hits against winning pitcher Jordan Peters.

Coach David Daniels said a lack of timely hitting is a key to the team's struggles.

 "We don't hit the ball nearly as much as we should and what we are capable of doing. Thomas hit the ball and we didn't."

Through 15 games, Helsel was the team's leading hitter at .429, followed by Reyes at .378. Reyes led the team in home runs with three and RBI with 12.

"We need to start hitting," Helsel said. "We need to come together as a team. It gets frustrating. We talk about it all the time. We try to better ourselves to see what we can do and move forward."

Reyes and John Slagle, was took the loss against Thomas, each had two wins on the mound.

"The kids don't quit," Daniels said. "They keep coming out and they keep pecking away. I hope that we can start hitting the ball a little bit better. We need to be more threatening offensively to really win games, be in games and be able to put people away."

•The softball team was 10-6 overall and 5-3 in the OCC-Central before it played Upper Arlington last Thursday and Friday. The Cougars were sixth in last the Division I area coaches poll.

Westland lost to Thomas 1-0 last Wednesday.

The Cougars will play host to Darby on Monday and Thomas on Tuesday and visit Central Crossing on Wednesday.

Westland scored four runs in the sixth inning on its way to a 9-4 win over Kilbourne last Monday. Brandi Rees was the winning pitcher.

"I'm really happy with my girls," senior shortstop Carly Beasy said. "They really came together as a team this year. We've never been this high in the OCC. Every time we have an OCC game we take it seriously. We fight hard. We fight hard every game."

•The boys and girls track and field teams, which competed in the Anthony Wilson Invitational last Saturday at Franklin Heights, will play host to Upper Arlington on Tuesday and compete in the Teays Valley Invitational on Saturday.

"Teays Valley is a nice kind of country meet," coach Tim Eckard said. "We're pretty competitive at it."

The boys team lost to Thomas 100-15 last Tuesday. Kevin Simms, who helped the baseball team beat Briggs earlier in the day, won the 800 meters (2:11.45).

The Cougars finished fourth (85) at the Africentric Invitational on April 25 as Eastmoor (133) won. Winners for Westland were Keith Carius in the 800 (2:13.05), Abdi Omer in the 3,200 (11:47.63) and Ben Warner, Carius, Omer and Dillon Barclay in the 3,200 relay (8:57.68).

The girls team lost to Thomas 89-44. Kristin Draves won the 800 (2:46.21) and 3,200 (14:34.93).

Westland finished fourth (82) behind first-place Africentric (179) at the Africentric Invitational. Individual champions for Westland were Allison Thomas in the high jump (5 feet) and Courtney Francis in the long jump (14-10).

•The boys tennis team was 3-8 overall before it played Briggs last Thursday.

The Cougars, who are 0-5 in the OCC-Central, defeated Franklin Heights 5-0 last Wednesday. Winners were David Griffith at first singles 6-3, 6-3, Allan Hinch at second singles 6-2, 6-0, Tyler Thomas at third singles by forfeit, Troy Fleischman and Scott Haslam at first doubles 6-0, 6-0 and Colin McCarty and Jesse Kraft at second doubles 6-4, 6-3.