CHARLESTON, W.Va. — If Winfield had nerves regarding its first spot in the state tournament in 21 years, they hardly showed them Friday during a Class AA semifinal against Lewis County.
The Generals scored in each of the first three innings, including multiple runs in the second and third, which combined with a strong start from pitcher Karson Frye, led the top seed to a 6-2 victory over the No. 4 Minutemen at GoMart Ballpark.
“No matter regular season records, you’re going to have close games, because teams are playing for their lives and playing for a goal they have and if you lose, it’s your last game of the season,” Generals’ head coach Will Isaacs said. “Everybody gives maximum effort. We’ll take not pretty as long as we win and we’ll take a little bit of luck, too.”
The result allows Winfield (29-9) to face the winner of No. 2 Keyser/No. 3 Shady Spring in Saturday’s title game.
Frye helped set the tone by retiring the side in order to start the contest, before WHS produced the game’s first run on a Dylan Kuhl sacrifice fly that brought Xavier Hensley home.
Frye issued his first two of five base-on-balls in the second inning, but recorded one of his 10 strikeouts on Drew Cayton to ensure Lewis (15-11) left a pair of runners on and remained scoreless.
The Minutemen didn’t help their cause in the second on an error that allowed Brett Bumgarner to reach, and he came around to score when Blake Withrow followed with a triple to left. Lewis pitcher Brayden Carter had an opportunity to escape with a two-run deficit, but Hensley’s two-out single plated a pair and put the Generals on top, 4-0.
“I was really hoping that our nerves wouldn’t play a factor because nobody here had actually played in a ballpark like this, but they did last a little bit longer than I thought,” Minutemen head coach Tyler Wood said. ”We ran into a good arm over there. That kid is probably one of the best arms in the state and our bats just didn’t travel down here. It’s as simple as that.”
After Frye logged his third scoreless inning and before Winfield came to bat in the third, there was an extended delay for a medical emergency to the home plate umpire, causing a shuffling of the crew.
The Generals handled the delay better and added to their lead with a two spot in the third. Kuhl singled and reached third on an error, before scoring on a Maddox Shafer sacrifice fly that was dropped and resulted in another Minutemen miscue.
Bumgarner added a sacrifice fly of his own to make it a six-run margin after three.
Trenton Hunt connected for a leadoff single in the fourth that marked Lewis’ first hit, but the Minutemen couldn’t manage to score. Lewis loaded the bases with one out in the fifth and Hunt sent a fly ball to right that looked plenty deep enough to bring home the team’s first run, but there was no attempt to tag up from third. Zach James followed by hitting a fly ball to left for the final out.
“I tell Karson all the time he has overpowering stuff, but he has to trust his stuff in the strike zone,” Isaacs said. “He tries to miss bats and overthrow, but you have to trust your stuff in the strike zone. If he’ll trust his stuff in the strike zone, he may give up a few hits, but he’ll give us a chance to win.”
Frye induced a ground ball to second from Luke Davisson for the first out of the sixth, before having to be lifted as a result of his pitch count. Brycen Brown came on and struck out consecutive batters to keep his team’s six-run lead intact.
Still, making their first state tournament appearance in 37 years, the Minutemen refused to go down without a fight.
Carder’s one-out single in the seventh was followed by a Joseph Aman double that brought in the first run for LCHS. After Withrow came on to pitch, Grant Mealey worked a walk and Hunt reached on an error. James followed with a run-scoring single that enabled the Minutemen to bring the tying run to the plate.
“We fought back again and that’s been our entire season. We get down early and we do not drop our heads or get lazy with anything,” Wood said. “We still fight. You can’t teach that stuff. I am proud of them for that.”
Withrow maintained his poise, however, and struck out Davisson before getting the final out on a Ryder Aman liner to short.
“They put some pressure on us and we cracked a little bit, but you just have to keep playing,” Isaacs said.
Only one of the six runs Carder allowed was earned and he struck out eight, walked one and surrendered five hits.
“Our goal coming in was to be low and away in the zone,” Wood said. “He did a good job with that. We had a couple mental mistakes behind him we just couldn’t recover from.”
Lewis had four of the game’s five errors.
No player had multiple hits in a game that featured nine.
“It’s always best to play in front and I’m going to look at it like we used two relievers that we still have for tomorrow and they’re acclimated to the mound, so they have some experience out there,” Isaacs said. “We’d have liked to have gone without having to bring them in, but you can’t get to the championship without winning the semifinal game. We’re there, so we have a chance.”