MORGANTOWN – First-year head coach Jacob Goodknight enjoyed the resiliency of his players on Tuesday night as Morgantown Post 2 opened postseason play with a solid 5-2 victory over Buckhannon Post 7.
Mason Chaney led Morgantown, going 3 for 3 at the plate with an RBI and a run scored. UHS graduate Daniel Grabo added a pair of hits while his classmate Tommy Montague tossed 2.2 innings of two-hit baseball to close the deal.
With the victory, Post 2 advances to the 1-0 game of the Area 2 tournament to battle Bridgeport Post 68 Wednesday at 7:00 p.m. Bridgeport defeated Clarksburg Post 13 5-2 in the opening game of the tournament.
“I loved the fight from our guys after letting a couple of runs early and actually falling behind at one point,” Goodknight said. “They sort of small-balled us to death and forced some mistakes from us, but we came right back and put two runs up ourselves. Like we told them, in postseason play the goal is to go 1-0 every single day, every single game.”
Post 2 starter Jack Bryner allowed the first two runners to reach base but earned three straight strikeouts to close the top half of the opening inning.
Morgantown took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second on an infield error, but Buckhannon punched back in the top of the third with two runs to steal the lead.
Post 2 tied the game in the same inning on a sacrifice fly by Nate Wolfe that scored Chaney. Bryner used only 11 pitches to exit the top of the fourth, giving his offense the much-needed confidence boost it needed entering the bottom half.
Parker Jeffries singled with one out, and Brance McCune followed with a shot to center that got past the outfield, allowing the go-ahead run to score as McCune took third.
He scored on another sac fly (this time by Chaney) to double the lead at 4-2, and the final run came in the fifth as Grabo took home on a wild pitch.
“Mason (Chaney) has stepped up for us on and off the field,” Goodknight said. “We’re up three, and he hits a ball in the infield but beats it out for a single on bad knees. That just shows the heart he has. After the game, he’s in the dugout, making sure everyone leaves as a team together. All we ask of them is to play hard and play for each other.”
Post 2 will have a quick 24-hour turnaround against a talented Bridgeport roster. The winner will advance to play Thursday in the Area 2 championship and will hold the advantage of having a 2-0 record, needing to lose twice to be eliminated.
“Every day we try to emphasize the little things and do those right,” Goodknight said. “It doesn’t matter who we play, we are trying to go out there to win every game. We know teams are going to try to manufacture runs against us, so we need to remain focused on our goals at all times and how we can achieve those.”
