BRIDGEPORT – After dropping the second game of the American Legion WV Area 2 tournament to Bridgeport Post 68 7-3 on Wednesday, Morgantown Post 2 baseball capped off three wins in 24 hours with the latest coming in the championship game, 10-6.
Post 2 also defeated Post 68 Wednesday night 10-7 to force the final game on Thursday.
Three walks in the top of the sixth inning gave Morgantown an 8-5 lead going into the final frame as Cody Thomas pitched three innings in relief, giving up just two hits and a single run.
Post 2 will now advance to the WV state tournament next week in Charleston beginning on Tuesday.
“We just came out with the same mindset as yesterday and tried to do our job,” Post 2 head coach Andy Altemus said. “We had a lot of confidence, pitching was ok, but both teams were low on pitching due to playing a few games this week. We had to out hit them and that’s what we did.”
Despite three runs on three walks, Post 2 produced eight hits as a team (four doubles) and earned an RBI for every run scored in the game. In fact, six of the nine batters in the lineup earned at least one RBI. Park Croyle led the team with three on the night as the designated hitter, first with a double in the top of the first that scored two runners, and again in the top of the third on a single to right field that brought Lance Whanger around opening the score to 4-0 early on.
“Park is just one of the hardest workers I’ve ever had,” Altemus said. “I was kind of disappointed I had to take him out of the DH spot when we had our pitching change, but that’s also just the type of player he is. He wants to win and wants the best for his teammates. He let’s his play do the talking.”
The Morgantown lead would be short-lived as Bridgeport exploded for a two-out rally of four runs in the bottom half of the third. Two singles and a bases loaded walk yielded the runs in the inning for the hosts.
Each team earned one more run in the fourth inning to knot the game at five entering the fifth. It would proved to be much different than the theme of the game as each team earned three outs fairly quickly.
Then the difference came in the sixth inning, as Bridgeport allowed six walks to Post 2 batters, with three of them scoring runs, giving the visitors a 8-5 lead.
“We gave up walks too, but it was nice to get that back,” Altemus said. “As a former pitcher I don’t really enjoy them but we welcome them on the offensive side.”
A sixth run came for Post 68 in the sixth to cut the lead to two runs, but no more would come for Bridgeport. In fact, Morgantown added two more in the top of the seventh to reach the final score of 10-6.
“I just reminded them of who they are, and what they’re not,” Altemus said after dropping the second tournament game to Bridgeport. “We are not going to get them down on themselves when we have a bad game or anything. We know what we can do and just need to work hard.”
Morgantown 10, Bridgeport 6
Morgantown 301 103 2 – 10 8 1
Bridgeport 004 101 0 – 6 6 1
Morgantown – Thomas 3210, Forbes 4211, Montague 3100, Bailey 4100, Walters 4222, Whanger 3121, Croyle 2023, Grabo 1001, Cash 2001, Dorkins 3100
2B: Thomas Whanger, Forbes, Croyle
Bridgeport – McDougal 4010, Paulsen 2110, Dixon 3122, Rohrig 1101, Biafore 3001, Blake 3012, Via 2000, Duvall 1000, Lively 1000, Romano 3100, Lough 3210
WP: Thomas 3.1ip 2h 1r 0bb 0k
LP: Duvall 2.0ip 1h 3r 7bb 1k
