MORGANTOWN — Twenty four hours after scoring 18 runs in game one of the Class AAA Region I, Section 2 softball tournament against Bridgeport, the University High Hawks followed up with 12 more on Tuesday night against Buckhannon-Upshur at Lynch Field.
With the 12-1 victory over the Lady Bucs, UHS (17-9) advances to the R1S2 championship on Thursday.
The Hawks fell behind early on Tuesday but rallied with 12 unanswered runs to close the game. Their seven hits came from six different batters throughout the lineup. UHS drew eight walks as a team and didn’t have a single strikeout.
“We started a little slow tonight adjusting to the pitching but stayed patient and got it going,” UHS coach Mindy Parks said. “We talked this week about staying behind the ball and not getting out front, I think we did a good job of that tonight particularly.”
The UHS defense was also strong without committing any errors in the game and giving up only a single run in the top of the first inning.
Buckhannon began the game hot at the plate with singles off of UHS starting pitcher Sophia Lehosit.
After a wild pitch allowed both runners to advance, a sacrifice fly to center field brought the opening run of the game in and gave the Lady Bucs an early 1-0 lead.
The Hawks answered in the bottom half of the first with a sacrifice fly of their own to tie the game after Adalyn Brown hit a leadoff double and advanced to third on a wild throw. Lexi Elza brought Brown home with a high-fly ball to right field.
The Hawks would go on to score runs in all four innings they came to bat while holding Buckhannon hitless during that span.
Lehosit earned the win in the circle throwing all five innings allowing only two hits and one run while striking out eight batters.
“I would say our defense has been at its best recently which is what we want,” Parks said.
“Pitching has been solid as well as our gloves behind them. We need to continue to focus on our approach at the plate with our hitting. If we can figure that out and go deep into pitch counts I like our chances in any game.”
Seven of the 12 runs by UHS came in the bottom of the fourth. Two walks and a single by Brown, her second hit of the game, loaded the bases for UHS. Maddie Campbell was hit by a pitch to extend the lead to 6-1 then Josalyn Phillips singled to bring two more runs home.
A fielder’s choice by Ally Jansen gave UHS a 9-1 lead then another sacrifice fly gave UHS its tenth.
Ashlyn Weaver and Kelsey Park hit back-to-back triples that each brought in a run to give UHS a 12-1 lead and a five-inning mercy-rule win after three straight outs in the top of the fifth.
“It’s been nice for us this year to have a deeper team,” Parks said. “We have some pinch runners and batters that can come in and make a difference every single inning we want to continue that.”
BOX SCORE
University 12, Buckhannon-Upshur 1
B-U 100 00 – 1 2 2
UHS 122 7X – 12 7 0
Buckhannon-Upshur – Marple 2110 Kimble 2010 Abel 2001 Spratt 2000 Hart 2000 Curry 2000 Pastorius 2000 Burnside 2000 Lantz 1000
University – Brown 2220 Voithofer 1000 Elza 0201 Campbell 1211 Phillips 2011 Lehosit 2010 Jansen 3000 Royce 2102 Weaver 2111 Park 1112
2B: Brown, Lehosit
3B: Weaver, Park
WP: Lehosit 5.0ip 2h 1r 0bb 8k
LP: Hart 1.0ip 2h 1r 0bb 0k
