CLARKSBURG, W.Va. — Fairmont Senior’s Ryan Valentine threw a complete game gem on Tuesday night as the Polar Bears gave Class AA No. 10 Liberty Harrison just its second loss on the season, 6-1.
Valentine surrendered the lone run in the fourth, but stayed out of significant trouble for the most part as the two teams were tied, 1-1, following five innings.
“Solid defense behind me is what helped me the most,” Valentine said. “I told my coach after the sixth inning that I had it, I believe in myself and wanted to finish the game.”
A Valentine double in the sixth led to a run for the Polar Bears (5-10), who eventually broke the game open with four more runs in the seventh. Liberty’s Buddy Devericks was effective, himself, for most of the night on the mound before losing steam in that final inning prior to being pulled.
“We rallied and played like a team,” Valentine said. “Liberty has a good team, I’ll give them that. We started hopping on (Devericks) towards the end. He’s a good pitcher, but we started seeing his pitches better as the game wore on.”
Liberty dropped to 9-2 on the season, while Fairmont Senior continued to build on the momentum it gained from a 9-1 Monday win over Oak Glen.
“Oak Glen knocked us out of the regionals last year,” said Fairmont Senior coach Dave Ricer. “On Monday night, we didn’t make an error and we hit the ball well. We said that game was going to be the springboard game for us.
“This team is better than last year’s team,” Ricer continued. “We’ve just had a bad break here and there. We’re going to put it together. I don’t care what our record is, getting to the state tournament is what we want to do.”
The Polar Bears have battled through a difficult schedule, which included a 1-4 trip to Myrtle Beach and losses to AAA No. 9 Morgantown, AA No. 1 Bridgeport and No. 4 PikeView.
“Our seniors this year made the state tournament as freshmen and sophomores,” Valentine said. “Last year we had heartbreak in Oak Glen. This year, we decided we were going to bring this team back together and play Polar Bear baseball like we know how.”