MORGANTOWN — The Morgantown High baseball team earned its 20th victory of the season on Monday evening by way of an OVAC Class 5A semifinal win over the visiting Wheeling Park Patriots at Dale Miller Field.
The Mohigans (20-7) advanced to Thursday’s title game with a 4-3 victory in the bottom of the ninth inning as junior Weston Mazey scored the winning run on a sacrifice fly by sophomore Koa Silvers.
“We had some players step up for up in today’s game,” MHS assistant coach Tim Bradley said. “Dylan Travinski was great today and his approach on the mound was amazing. We made the plays in the situations when we needed to. A lot of energy was shown today and that’s where we want to be right now.”
Both starting pitchers, Travinski for MHS and Braden Kupsky for Wheeling Park, opened the first few innings strong on the mound.
It wasn’t until the bottom of the third inning that the first run of the game was scored as the Mohigans got the bats going.
Mazey led off with a double to right field and was followed by Mason Bowers with a double of his own that scored the opening run of the contest and gave MHS a 1-0 lead.
Three straight walks from Kupsky yielded another run as the third came with the bases full and doubled the lead to 2-0 for MHS still with no outs.
After a fielder’s choice at home plate, MHS senior Eli Boggs hit a one-out double, the third of the inning for MHS, to bring home Travinski and extend the lead further to 3-0.
The Patriots eventually got out of the third inning and responded well in the top of the fourth with their first three hits.
Two singles and an error in the MHS infield allowed the visitors to cut into the lead 3-1, then sophomore Nate Yanchak singled with two outs to shrink the lead again to just one run 3-2.
After scoreless innings for both sides, the Patriots opened the top of the sixth with a double by Kupsky who advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt in the next at-bat and then scored the tying run on a sacrifice fly by Ryland Robb to knot the game at three runs a piece.
MHS senior Caleb Nutter hit a two-out triple in the bottom of the sixth and after a pitch hit Mazey, the Mohigans tried to get tricky with runners on the corners.
Mazey broke for second and tried to allow pinch-runner Ryan Nipper to steal home in the confusion, but the Park defense was all over the plan and caught Nipper out at the plate.
After a scoreless seventh inning, the game headed to extras. The Patriots managed to load the bases in the top of the ninth but MHS reliever Judd Messerly kept the Park offense at bay and opened the door for his offense to close the deal.
“Judd stepped up big for us today and gave us two strong innings to keep us in it,” Bradley said.
Mazey led off the bottom of the ninth with a single that a sacrifice bunt by Mason Bowers followed. During the play, however, the Patriots left third base uncovered and Mazey was able to advance without a challenge.
That made way for Silvers to send his team to the OVAC 5A title game when he sent the second pitch of the at-bat into right field, allowing Mazey to score from third.
“We really have a double leadoff situation with Weston batting ninth and then Mason coming up for us,” Bradley said. “Having a player like him at the nine spot is an advantage. We just need him to get on base and he will usually make the right play and it showed there to end the game.”
The Mohigans will play for the OVAC 5A title on Thursday at Edison High School in Richmond, Oh.
BOX SCORE
Morgantown 4, Wheeling Park 3
WP 000 201 000 – 3 7 1
MHS 003 000 001 – 4 8 3
Wheeling Park – Whitmire 2000 Marsh 5010 Simon 4110 Kupsky 3120 Digiandomenico 3000 Robb 3001 Yanchak 4011 McGee 3000 Gorby 1010 Bittinger 3010
2B: Kupsky
Morgantown – Bowers 4121 Silvers 2001 Travinski 2100 Fields 2001 Jeffries 1000 Milik 4010 Boggs 4021 Wolfe 3000 Nutter 4010 Mazey 3220
2B: Boggs, Bowers, Mazey
3B: Nutter
WP: Messerly 2.0ip 1h 0r 1bb 1k
LP: Bittinger 2.1ip 2h 1r 2bb 2k
GIRLS TENNIS
Morgantown 7, Bridgeport 0
MORGANTOWN — The Mohigans won its regional semifinal 7-0 over Bridgeport on Monday.
Maya Greenlee won 8-0 in top-flight singles, joined by individual winners Anika Chadha (8-1), Tina Chen (8-1) and Grace Forman (8-1). In doubles, Greelee and Chadha won 8-1 while Forman Natalia Cassim prevailed 8-0. Chen and Joce Hu won 8-2.
