CHARLESTON, W.Va (WBOY) — The West Virginia state high school baseball tournament began on Thursday with Class A action and two area teams will step under the bright lights on Friday as University and Lewis County take the field in Charleston.
For the Hawks, it’s the first trip since 2004 and just the second in school history.
Second-year head coach Brad Comport’s team responded to a 6-8 start to the season with an 18-3 finish and there’s not much left for University to do than play the game.
“Not a whole lot you can clean up in a couple of days as far as big things are concerned but we just want to get good reps in, make sure our guys are feeling good, feeling healthy, feeling confident approaching Friday so we’re just going to have a good day of work focusing on the fundamentals to make sure that these guys feel good and confident moving into the game,” he said.
Meanwhile, Lewis County is also making its second trip to the state tournament ever with the first coming in 1986.
It’s a stage the Minutemen haven’t seen in nearly 40 years, but they have confidence that their game and their community will speak for themselves.
“I just hope that the starstruck from the guys doesn’t last too long. Nobody’s really played in a ballpark from our team so I know that the community is going to come together for them. It’s been crazy over the last couple of weeks so I just hope that they continue that and the guys come out and find a way to treat it like any other ballgame,” head coach Tyler Wood.
University makes its return to the state tournament first as the Class AAA #2 seed, facing #3 Hedgesville in game two of Friday’s morning session before Class AA #4 Lewis County meets #1 Winfield at 5 pm to open the evening session.