MORGANTOWN — It wasn’t that long ago, just three weeks, when the Morgantown High baseball team traveled to Buckhannon and, in a game that featured a jet stream blowing straight out, lost a wild 15-13 contest.
So when the weather for the May 8 Mylan Park rematch in the opening round of the WVSSAC Region 1 Section 2 tournament was absolutely perfect — and remarkably still — MHS veteran coach Mark McCarty could be excused for breathing a little easier.
And with the potent battery of senior starter Ethan Stewart and sophomore catcher Charlie Kerzak taking care of business on the mound and both behind and at the plate, the Mohigans had little trouble in securing a spot in the winner’s bracket, walking off the Buccaneers in five innings, 11-1.
“We saw what they could do with the bats up there,” a calm McCarty said after the game, “so we were definitely not going to take them lightly. But we’re also playing better ball heading into the postseason, and that really showed today.”
MHS (17-8) jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the second, off B-U starter Logan Bailey, on Kerzak’s RBI groundout. Then the Mohigans blew this one open in the third, with a monster two-out rally. Devon Deal stroked a two-run double to right, and after Colton Matthews walked, Kerzak pounded a 2-1, center-cut fastball deep to left for a three-run blast and a 6-0 lead.
“I was sitting on a fastball ahead in the count, and he left one out over the plate,” Kerzak said with a smile. “All I had to do is put a good swing on it, try to hit it hard. It was a big hit for us there, gave us some room and let us relax a little bit.”
Working with a big lead in the top of the fourth, Stewart gave up a leadoff single and a walk, then settled down to strike out the next two. B-U’s Cole Hoover banged a single to right to drive in a run, but right fielder Preston Fox made a beautiful throw — after slipping to his knees while charging the ball — to nail the second runner at the plate.
“That was a big inning for us,” said Stewart, efficient with only 75 pitches in his eight-strikeout performance. “I didn’t want to give up that walk with a lead, but we used the slow curve — it’s my go-to pitch, and I’ve always been able to rely on it — to get the next two, and then Preston made that great throw to limit the damage and get us out of it.”
Quintin Smith added on to the lead in the fourth with a sharp, two-out, two-RBI single. In the final frame, an infield error and Matthews’ double were followed by Kerzak’s sac fly, his fifth RBI of the game. Gavin Cottle drove in Matthews, stole second, and raced home on Fox’s single to end it.
After the game, McCarty was pleased with all parts of the solid win.
“We were happy to play good defense” — Deal turned in a sparkling snag at third in the fifth to end the inning — “and limit Ethan’s pitch count,” he said. “He might be available for us on Friday if we need him. And we are a very streaky team with the bats. When we’re swinging it well, it seems like we all are, and that makes us tough to beat.
“We just hope,” he concluded with a smile that conveyed years and years of baseball experience, “that the streakiness carries over, on the good side, the rest of the tournament.”
Morgantown will be the road team against top-seeded University at 4 p.m. today, at Mylan Park.
