MORGANTOWN — The weather may still be a little too cold and a little too dreary for it to truly feel like baseball season just yet, but the Morgantown High bats have been red-hot to start the year.
The Mohigans defeated visiting John Marshall 10-0 in six innings at Dale Miller Field Wednesday afternoon in their second mercy-rule victory in as many days to kick off the 2023 campaign.
“I’m confident in every one of the guys one through nine in our lineup right now,” MHS coach Pat Sherald said. “We have a mature lineup that has been with us for a while, but we have some young guys who are going to be able to go up and be good ballplayers for us too.”
The Mohigans (2-0) scored in every inning against the Monarchs (1-3) with all nine batters either driving in a run or scoring one themselves. Eight of the nine recorded a hit as well with Ryan Fluharty and Riley Anderson each hitting two as the team racked up 10 base knocks in total.
“We work really hard at it and we were able to get outside a lot more this year,” Sherald said. “It’s not their first time seeing live pitching like it is some years. Their approaches have been good so far and that’s something we need to maintain.”
Fluharty started the scoring with an RBI single into left field in the bottom of the first and back-to-back doubles by Caleb Cottle and Anderson added another run in the second. Lance Whanger drove in Anderson and Fluharty scored on an error in the third for a 4-0 lead after three innings.
Ty Galusky drove in Weston Mazey in the fourth and Anderson came around to score on a wild pitch for a 6-0 advantage. Another JM miscue led to Morgantown’s seventh run in the bottom of the fifth.
Mazey, Galusky and Aaron Jamison all walked to load the bases in the sixth before an error allowed two to score and Cottle’s RBI groundout to second base ended the game an inning early.
“We preach to go out and win every inning and (Wednesday), they went out and won every inning,” Sherald said. “We didn’t have a big inning, but they did go out and compete every inning.”
While MHS’s offense was humming along, so too was starting pitcher Hunter Daker. The junior southpaw tossed six shutout innings allowing just five hits and one walk while striking out four and stranding seven JM baserunners.
“If he can go out and command the strike zone like that, he’s going to get a lot of innings for us this year,” Sherald said. “He made pitches in big situations and obviously defensively some of our guys came in and made plays in big situations as well.”
Daker, who grew six inches in the offseason according to Sherald, picked up his first varsity win in the contest as Morgantown pitchers have yet to allow a run through two games.
“I think the big thing for us right now is that our pitchers are throwing the ball in the strike zone,” Sherald said. “We only had one walk and we’ve said all along that if our pitchers compete, throw the ball in the strike zone and we play good defense, it gives us a chance.”
Anderson led Morgantown’s offense with a pair of doubles, an RBI and two runs scored. Fluharty had two hits, one double, drove in a run and scored himself. Mazey and Galuksy each scored twice while Galusky, Cottle, Caleb Neer and Whanger all had one RBI.
JM catcher Braden Sobutka had two of the Monarchs’ five hits and left-hander Alex Wilhelm started on the mound in the losing effort, allowing six runs on eight hits while striking out five and walking one.
Morgantown will stay busy this week if the weather holds up with home games against Parkersburg South and Uniontown (Pa.) scheduled for Thursday and Saturday and a road game at Wheeling Park on the books for Friday.
Morgantown 10, John Marshall 0
JM 0 0 0 0 0 0 — 0 5 4
MHS 1 2 1 2 1 3 — 10 10 2
JM — Stauffer 3 0 0 0; Coffield 2 0 0 0; Bre. Sobutka 3 0 1 0; Hicks 3 0 0 0; Bra. Sobutka 3 0 2 0; Koontz 3 0 1 0; Wilhelm 2 0 0 0; Cook 2 0 0 0; Haynes 2 0 1 0. Totals 23 0 5 0.
MHS — Mazey 2 2 0 0; Galusky 2 2 1 1; Jamison 3 1 1 0; Fluhartey 4 1 2 1; Bailey 4 1 1 0; Cottle 4 1 1 1; Anderson 2 2 2 1; Neer 3 0 1 1; Whanger 3 0 1 1. Totals 27 10 10 6.
2B — MHS: Anderson (2), Fluhartey, Cottle.
WP: Daken 6ip, 5h, 0r, 1bb, 4k
LP: Wilhelm 4ip, 8h, 6r, 1bb, 5k
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