MORGANTOWN — Aaron Jamison was making headlines before he even set foot on the field for the Morgantown baseball team.
A highly-touted prospect even as a middle-schooler, Jamison earned an offer from WVU head baseball coach Randy Mazey, and the hometown kid promptly committed, nearly five years before he would play for the Mountaineers.
But even Jamison’s high school career was delayed — the high school baseball season was canceled during his freshman year in 2020 because of COVID-19, so the Mohigans had to wait and see what Jamison could do.
“It just made me want to play even more,” he said. “I wanted to get out there and play the game that I love.”
Now, he is hitting third in the order and manning center field for MHS, which knocked off John Marshall on Friday night 11-1 to claim the Class AAA Region I, Section 1 championship.
Jamison went 1 for 2 with an RBI in the win, and while he is starting to show why he is one of the top prospects in West Virginia, he’s also just happy to be on the field.
A few nagging injuries have kept him out of the lineup for the Mohigans (21-4) recently, but the team has kept chugging along regardless.
“I’ve been out a few games but the rest of the team has picked it up,” Jamison said. “I think we’ve really got a good team here.”
Head coach Pat Sherald has been impressed with Jamison’s work ethic more than anything this season. It’s one thing to have the natural talent, but Jamison works at his craft and wants to continue to get better.
“He’s done a great job for us,” Sherald said. “He’s an extremely hard worker and is an extremely resilient young man. He’s fought through some nagging injuries, but when he’s had his chances, he’s constantly competing for us. He’s doing a great job for us in the outfield, as well.”
MHS got on the board first in the 2nd inning when Quincy Thornton scored on a wild pitch, followed by an RBI groundout by Domenic Colasante. Next, Zach Owens’s RBI groundout made it 3-0.
Jamison’s RBI came in the 3rd inning on a single to make it 4-0, but it was the 4th inning that was the deciding frame that advanced the Mohigans to the regional final and ended John Marshall’s season.
MHS scored seven runs in the inning, taking advantage of wild pitches and hit batters to small-ball the Monarchs into submission.
The game into by mercy rule in the 5th, 11-1.
“We took the walks and hit-by-pitches when they gave them to us,” Sherald said. “We ran the bases really well, we had several bunt hits. I was overall really pleased with their effort. Reed Bailey went out and gave us a chance to win the ballgame.”
The lefty Bailey pitched five innings, allowing one earned run on seven hits and struck out four.
MHS will play the winner of Section 2 between University and Bridgeport next week for the regional title.
BOX SCORE
John Marshall
Rayl 2 1 0 0; Wright 3 0 2 0; Coffield 3 0 3 1; Wise 3 0 1 0; Neely 3 0 0 0; Wiley 1 0 1 0; Black 2 0 0 0; Swift 2 0 0 0; Gellner 2 0 0 0; Beckett 0 0 0 0. Totals: 21 1 7 1.
Morgantown
Fluharty 2 1 0 0; Galusky 2 0 1 2; Jamison 2 0 1 1; Nutter 1 2 0 2; Thornton 2 1 0 0; Brennan 1 1 0 0; Smith 2 2 1 0; Colasante 1 1 0 1; Owens 2 1 1 2; Kennell 2 1 0 0; Neer 0 1 0 0. Totals: 17 11 4 8.
JM 000 01 – 1
MHS 031 7x – 11
PITCHING
JM — Coffield 3ip, 3h, 9r, 8er, 2so, 7 bb; Sobutka 1ip, 1h, 2r, 0er, 1so, 2bb.
MHS — Bailey 5ip, 7h, 1r, 1er, 4so, 2bb.
