SOUTH CHARLESTON – In the program’s first appearance at the state tournament, the Morgantown High School softball team will play for a state championship.
The Mohigans defeated No. 3 George Washington 6-0 in Wednesday evening’s Class AAAA winners bracket contest, seeing them through to the championship series on Thursday afternoon, where they will need to win just one more game to claim the title. MHS will need to be defeated twice by its opponents in the double-elimination format.
MHS senior Maddie Wisman tossed her third straight complete-game shutout against George Washington, allowing five hits and earning three strikeouts without giving up a walk.
“From the first pitch to the last, all of our focus is on what’s happening on that field,” Wisman said. “I’ve never had more fun playing softball than I have this week so far, and I think I speak for a lot of the team when I say that. We want to win this together and we want it more than any other team here.”
The Morgantown defense continued to shine behind Wisman without committing an error, and the offense tallied 11 hits.
Four Mohigans earned multiple hits while seven total batters notched at least one.
The game remained scoreless for the opening four innings, but MHS eventually got to George Washington starter Kynzi Bellamy in the final three innings, plating runs in the fifth, sixth, and seventh.
Junior Carper Messerly tripled to lead off the top of the fifth, and came home to score the opening run of the contest on a grounder by Kayleigh White.
Wisman stranded a pair of GW runners in the bottom half of the inning, and MHS continued its offensive surge by loading the bases with no outs.
That opened the door for senior Beth Robinson to make an impact, slapping a ball back up the middle and scoring a pair of runs to extend the lead to 3-0.
Once again, Wisman sat down the Patriots’ batters 1-2-3 in the sixth, and the Mohigans added some insurance on a bases-loaded walk to score a fourth run. A fielder’s choice and a wild pitch allowed MHS to score twice more before the end of the sixth, taking a 6-0 lead into the final inning.
“Having the confidence my defense gives me helps so much,” Wisman said. “Everyone on this team does everything they do for each other. We have a vision board with a bunch of quotes and sayings on it, and the main one is ‘for each other,’ and I’ll do anything for my teammates.”
Wisman gave up a one-out single, but earned a strikeout and a groundout to end the contest and help her team advance to the state championship game on Thursday afternoon at 1:30 p.m.
BOX SCORE
Morgantown 6, George Washington 0
MHS 000 012 3 – 6 11 0
GW 000 000 0 – 0 5 3
Morgantown – Messerly 5120 White 4001 Wisman 4020 Street 4120 Smith 4020 Mallow 3200 G. Robinson 3211 Stone 4010 B. Robinson 4013 TOTALS 35 6 11 5
3B: Messerly
George Washington – Graley 3000 Verdula 3000 Tomblin 3000 Armstrong 3000 Long 3020 Tetrick 2010 Carte 1000 McKinney 3000 Campbell 2020 Bellamy 2000 TOTALS 25 0 5 0
W: Wisman 7.0ip 5h oer 0bb 3k
L: Bellamy 7.0ip 11h 6r(4er) 1bb 4k
