St. Marys head coach Lacy Riggs high-fives Breanna Worth after Worth scores the primary run in Blue Devils’ 6-0 win over Petersburg Thursday in a W.Va. Class A state event elimination recreation in South Charleston, W.Va.
(Photograph by Kerry Patrick)
SOUTH CHARLESTON, W.Va. — St. Marys junior Breanna Worth is reaping the advantages of prior expertise on the state stage in each women basketball and softball.
Friday morning in an elimination recreation on the Class A state softball event, Worth ignited the Blue Satan offense with the staff’s first hit and first run in a 6-0 win over a Petersburg outfit which defeated St. Marys twice throughout final 12 months’s state event.
Worth additionally began for the St. Marys women basketball staff making a repeat look on the state event earlier than Petersburg because the sixth seed knocked out the Blue Devils within the opening spherical.
St. Marys (30-5) superior to the championship stage scheduled for later within the afternoon needing to win twice towards Wahama, which was 30-5 previous to the matchup.
“Beating Petersburg is one thing we’re very pleased with,” Worth stated. “We knew we needed to are available in and hit. All of us have been very pumped up and that helped us keep within the recreation. Awe put the bat on the ball and good issues occurred.”
Seven of St. Marys’ beginning 9 contributed no less than one hit to the nine-hit assault, together with two apiece from Worth out of the No. 7 gap adopted by Autumn Mossor within the eighth spot.
Mossor, the daughter of St. Marys coach Lacy Riggs, performed her first recreation within the state event. Each Mossor and Worth every drove in a single run. Additionally within the decrease half of the order, Baylee McGrady tripled dwelling two runs in a four-run fifth inning which accomplished the scoring for the Blue Devils.
Worth, who batted lead-off for a majority of the season, was bumped down the lineup as a method of kick-starting a St. Marys assault which went chilly within the latter a part of the season main as much as this week’s till the state event.
“Our bats, now we have been fairly sizzling so long as we preserve them rolling,” Riggs stated. “Now we have made a few modifications. Autumn didn’t have an at-bat this event. The children are adjusting, doing what they’re alleged to do and pulling via.
“With women like Breanna, that offers us a flexible batter towards the underside of the order. We’re in a position to make higher use of her expertise down there.”
Worth additionally was on the receiving finish of a Petersburg baserunner caught stealing at second base.
“Myself, I’ve been going into the batter’s field considering leap on the primary pitch,” Worth stated. “Get a great hit on one you possibly can deal with and despatched it.
“This 12 months we haven’t had the nerves. Final 12 months, we didn’t know what to anticipate.”
Cali Masters earned the win after throwing six innings of shutout ball with three hits allowed and 10 strikeouts. She struck out 9 Vikings within the first 4 innings.
“Sure, we saved an inning and Ella got here off the bench and was additionally stellar on the market,” Riggs stated. “That’s referred to as teamwork.”
Coach Riggs saved an inning for Masters in case St. Marys pressured a second recreation towards Wahama. Fellow southpaw Ella Smith, the lone senior on the Blue Satan roster, wanted simply 12 pitches to strike out the facet so as within the high of the seventh inning.
Taking the loss for Petersburg was junior Sammy Colaw, who walked two and struck out seven. The Vikings shut out the season at 26-10 after taking part in via a continuous schedule with solely 10 gamers in uniform.
“Truthfully, I’m so grateful for an impressive 12 months,” Petersburg coach Bubba Hedrick stated. “I really feel blessed that we bought right here. We knew we have been very brief in numbers and really younger. We actually scraped to get 10 youngsters this 12 months. It was simply an odd 12 months for us.
“We knew something we bought right here was a cherry on high. We really performed a few video games this 12 months after we solely had 9. We have been nervous the whole 12 months, however we bought plenty of mileage. We performed plenty of video games.”
Petersburg, which was held shutout for the ultimate 12 innings of the event, graduates one senior in catcher Braylee Corbin.
“We form of rode Colaw and Corbin all 12 months,” Hedrick stated. “They carried us rather a lot.”
Contact Kerry Patrick at kpatrick@newsandsentinel.com
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