MORGANTOWN – A strong outing from junior pitcher Grayson Campbell and offensive production from the bottom half of the batting lineup led Morgantown to a 6-0 win over crosstown rival University High on Wednesday night at Dale Miller Field.
Campbell went the distance for MHS (13-2), allowing only two hits and one walk, and striking out a trio of UHS batters in only 83 pitches.
The Mohigans tallied seven hits in the contest, with five of them coming from the 6-9 hitters in the order.
“This is a game we value here against our crosstown rival University, and it means a little extra to our guys,” MHS head coach Pat Sherald said. “It’s big as far as OVAC standings and the regional standings for the state playoffs as well, as we came out ready to play this evening.”
Sherald’s club has bounced back with two shutout victories in consecutive contests after dropping 2 out of 3 games over the weekend in the Mon County Mohigans Baseball Classic.
“We have 15 games under our belt now, and one thing we’ve done every game is pitch,” he said. “I told our guys, if you can pitch and play some defense, you’re going to give yourselves a chance to win every game. We had two one-run losses last week, but we pitched well, and we played defense. There was never any reason to panic, and our kids know that, and they never stop working to get better.”
Sophomore Kai Henkins was the only player in the game to earn multiple hits, including a triple in the bottom of the third inning. He also scored a run and totaled a pair of RBI with a sacrifice fly and a single.
UHS (5-11) earned one of its two hits on the first batter of the game as sophomore Noah Templeton lasered a ball to center.
But Campbell and the MHS defense settled in, allowing only one hit for the remainder of the game, and getting some massive run support offensively from Henkins and others.
The Mohigans added a run in each of the third and fourth innings, and two more in the fifth.
The final pair of runs came in the bottom of the sixth inning to seal the deal on the series sweep for MHS over the Hawks.
Morgantown will travel to Bridgeport for a pair of games on Friday against Washington (11:30 a.m.) and Philip Barbour (2:45 p.m.).
University will travel to Buckhannon-Upshur on Friday and Cabell Midland on Saturday to conclude the week.
BOX SCORE
Morgantown 6, University 0
UHS 000 000 0 – 0 2 1
MHS 001 122 X – 6 7 1
University (5-11) – Templeton 2010 Cash 3000 Velickoff 3010 Alexander 2000 Jenkins 2000 White 2000 Bryner 1000 Shuba 2000 Burgess 1000 Solomon 2000 Waldo 2000 TOTALS 22 0 2 0
Morgantown (13-2) – Gorby 4001 Bowers 3110 Silvers 3011 Nipper 3100 Thornton 2000 Williams 2111 Joseph 3010 Bredeson 3110 Henkins 2122 TOTALS 25 6 7 5
2B: Joseph
3B: Henkins
WP: Campbell 7.0 ip 2h 0er 1bb 3k
LP: Cash 5.0 ip 5h 4r (3er) 1bb 4k
