WHEELING, W.Va. — Wheeling Park (17-10) enters the baseball state tournament from Appalachian Power Park this week having won nine straight games.
The Patriots, who face Nitro in the first Class AAA semifinal at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, are making their second straight state tournament appearance. Wheeling Park is the lone returning team to this year’s state tournament out of Class AAA.
Last year’s tournament run was the first for Wheeling Park since 1989.
“It’s awesome,” said senior pitcher Michael Grove. “We had an exciting (regional final) and we’re really excited to go back down (to Charleston). We’re facing a really good team in Nitro and it’ll be a really fun experience for everybody. Hopefully we can get the win.”
The Patriots a season ago fell in the same Class AAA semifinals to Riverside, 3-2. Grove struck out eight in the loss, giving up three runs (two earned) in 6.2 innings on the mound.
In last week’s 4-2 regional final win over Morgantown, Grove threw six scoreless innings and finished with 14 strikeouts.
“I was definitely feeling a little extra because of the atmosphere, it was a really big game and that got the juices going a little bit more,” Grove said. “The experience that we gained last year (at the state tournament) will help us – we will be laid back a little bit more.”
Grove, who made a splash during his junior season with an ERA just over 1.00, signed earlier back in the fall with WVU.
Overall, Grove said he hits 91-93 mph consistently on the radar gun and has topped out at 95 mph.
“Over the off-season, I really worked a lot on my off-speed pitches,” he said. “Last year, I got away with just throwing my fastball a lot because I threw hard and could hit my spots. This year, I’ve worked in the curveball and changeup a lot more – it’s helped me out a lot.”
Pitches Grove will likely need in Thursday’s semifinal clash with Nitro (24-10). But as Grove has evolved this year, so have the rest of the Patriots. Wheeling Park started off the season with just three wins in its first 10 games and entered May with a record below .500.
“We’ve grown up a lot,” Grove said. “We have a lot of sophomores and juniors and we’re really young. We played a lot of really good teams at the beginning of the year and dropped a lot of close games. But we stayed with it and now we’re hitting the ball, we’re fielding, we’re throwing and everyone has a lot more experience, which has made all of the difference.”
The winner of Thursday’s game moves on to face either Jefferson or Greenbrier East in the Class AAA title game at 10 a.m. Saturday.
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| WHEELING PARK 2015 Baseball Schedule |
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| 1 | 03/24/15 | 5:00 PM | A – | UNIVERSITY | 5 | – | 3 | W |
| 2 | Cancelled | 5:00PM | H – | PARKERSBURG | – | |||
| 3 | Cancelled | 12:00PM | H – | PARKERSBURG SOUTH | – | |||
| 4 | 03/30/15 | 5PM | A – | PARKERSBURG SOUTH | 3 | – | 6 | L |
| 5 | 04/01/15 | 5:00PM | H – | STEUBENVILLE | 5 | – | 4 | W |
| 6 | 04/04/15 | 3:00PM | A – | WOODROW WILSON | 6 | – | 7 | L |
| 7 | 04/04/15 | 11:00AM | A – | JEFFERSON | 0 | – | 5 | L |
| 8 | 04/06/15 | 5:00PM | H – | Brooke High School | 12 | – | 7 | W |
| 9 | 04/11/15 | 6:30PM | H – | GROVE CITY | 9 | – | 13 | L |
| 10 | Cancelled | 4:00PM | H – | ST. CLAIRSVILLE | – | |||
| 11 | 04/13/15 | 5:00 PM | A – | MORGANTOWN | 4 | – | 8 | L |
| 12 | 04/15/15 | 5:00 PM | H – | UNIVERSITY | 3 | – | 4 | L |
| 13 | 04/16/15 | 5:00 PM | A – | STEUBENVILLE | 5 | – | 15 | L |
| 14 | 04/17/15 | 4:00PM | A – | HURRICANE | 4 | – | 1 | W |
| 15 | 04/17/15 | 1:00PM | A – | GEORGE WASHINGTON | 2 | – | 8 | L |
| 16 | 04/18/15 | TBAPM | A – | ST. ALBANS HIGH SCHOOL | 9 | – | 3 | W |
| 17 | 04/23/15 | 5:00PM | H – | MORGANTOWN | 7 | – | 0 | W |
| 18 | Cancelled | TBAPM | H – | OVAC Semi-Finals | – | |||
| 19 | 04/27/15 | 5:00 PM | H – | JOHN MARSHALL | 2 | – | 0 | W |
| 20 | 04/28/15 | 5:00 PM | A – | EDISON LOCAL | 5 | – | 6 | L |
| 21 | 04/29/15 | 5:00PM | A – | JOHN MARSHALL | 17 | – | 10 | W |
| 22 | Cancelled | 7:30PM | A – | OVAC Finals | – | |||
| 23 | 05/02/15 | 3:00PM | A – | BRIDGEPORT SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL | 8 | – | 9 | L |
| 24 | 05/02/15 | 1:15PM | A – | WASHINGTON HIGH SCHOOL | 8 | – | 1 | W |
| 25 | 05/04/15 | 5:00PM | A – | ST. CLAIRSVILLE | 7 | – | 2 | W |
| 26 | 05/05/15 | 5:00PM | H – | EDISON LOCAL | 9 | – | 1 | W |
| 27 | 05/07/15 | 5:00PM | A – | PARKERSBURG | 7 | – | 6 | W |
| 28 | 05/08/15 | 5:00 PM | A – | Brooke High School | 12 | – | 9 | W |
| 29 | 05/13/15 | 5:00PM | H – | Brooke High School | 5 | – | 3 | W |
| 30 | 05/14/15 | 5:00PM | A – | Brooke High School | 14 | – | 3 | W |
| 31 | 05/25/15 | 6:00PM | A – | PARKERSBURG SOUTH | 13 | – | 2 | W |
| 32 | 05/27/15 | 5:00PM | H – | MORGANTOWN | 4 | – | 2 | W |
| wins: 17 lost: 10 ties: 0 | ||||||||