MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — First baseman Andrew Berry hit a sacrifice fly to left with the bases loaded and one out to score the winning run on Monday night as Class AAA No. 5 Morgantown edged Wheeling Park 5-4 in eight innings.
“The entire game I felt like I was trying to do too much with my at-bats,” Berry said. “Going into that at-bat, I was just trying to get the job done. I knew I needed to get the ball out into the grass to score the runner on third. He threw me an inside fastball on the first pitch and I just tried to turn on it and get it into the outfield.”
The win was significant for Morgantown (8-1), beating Wheeling Park for the second time this year. The Patriots (4-7) have eliminated the Mohigans in regional final action in each of the last two seasons.
“This one is huge,” Berry said. “They have been one of our biggest rivals over the past few years because they’ve kept us out of the state tournament. Getting this win is huge and I feel like we’re really hitting our stride now. We have a big schedule ahead of us and we’re playing every day.”
Morgantown had been hovering just outside the Class AAA top 10 in the MetroNews baseball poll for much of the early season, but surged up to No. 5 this week.
“Over the past few weeks we felt like we had been looked over a little bit,” Berry said. “We hadn’t been seeing our name in those rankings. But now that we’re getting more respect with some of these wins, that’s really great.”
It’s a Wheeling Park team that’s better than its 4-7 record would indicate. The Patriots started off the season with four difficult losses during a tournament in Florida and have been trying to climb out of that hole.
Wheeling Park led 3-0 in the middle of the second, but saw the Mohigans tie the game in the bottom of the inning. Morgantown took a 4-3 lead into the seventh before the Patriots tied the game up at 4-4 to eventually force the extra inning.
“That was an excellent, old-fashioned baseball game,” said Morgantown coach Mark McCarty. “I thought both teams played really well. The pitchers threw the ball over the plate, both teams made contact and played good defense. That was definitely the best baseball game that we’ve had all year. Wheeling Park is a good team, regardless of their record. They’re well coached and always fundamentally sound.”
Morgantown won the first meeting over Wheeling Park 7-1 earlier this month.