VIENNA, W.Va. — Already pushed to an extra game in the Class AAA softball championship, Hurricane found itself down three runs to Wheeling Park.
Yet any panic the defending champs might have been sensing soon was swatted away.
The Redskins answered with their biggest offensive surge in weeks, and mercy-ruled the Patriots 11-3 in five innings.
After leadoff hitter Jayme Bailey raced home on a wild pitch for the clinching run, Hurricane (34-5) had its third title in four seasons and validation for team T-shirts that read “Tradition never graduates.”
“I think a lot of people forgot about us because we lost four amazing players from last year,” said coach Josh Caldwell. “We still had a lot of good players left, and from the get-go this was our goal, to win the state championship.”
Wheeling Park (21-13) made it difficult with Makenzie Amend pitching back-to-back games earlier in the day. She blanked Ripley before dealing Hurricane its first loss, maxing out her 14-inning daily limit.
“She got us to the finals but we just ran out of pitching,” said Patriots coach Pat Durkin. “Hurricane hits the ball so well. We gave up a lot of runs, but that’s a good ball team. You almost can’t put the ball over the plate against them.”
Hurricane turned to sophomore Victoria Green after Katie Adams allowed two Wheeling Park runners in the first. It was 3-0 by the end of the inning, but Green allowed nothing more.
“I wasn’t expecting to pitch, but when we got in trouble in the first inning I went and warmed up,” Green said. “I just tried not to think about what was on the line.”
Senior all-tournament member Madison Hebb couldn’t help but ponder the circumstances as the Redskins trailed early.
“I was nervous, but I knew we were going to come back and we were going to pick each other up,” she said. “It felt great when we finally started hitting.”
And it felt even better when she experienced her third state championship.
“It’s bittersweet,” Hebb said, “because these four years have been amazing and I’ve played travel ball with these girls since I was little.”
Wheeling Park 5, Hurricane 3: After the Patriots erased a 3-0 deficit, Katarina Donzella lined a two-out, two-run single into left field to score the go-ahead runs.
Hurricane was denied a second straight tournament sweep despite a fast start. The Redskins’ first three batters reached, including Katie Adams’ RBI single that rolled through the centerfielder’s legs and allowed a second run to score. Amber Null followed with a sac bunt that scored Adams to make it 3-0.
Wheeling Park answered with Colleen Tracy’s two-run single in the second inning and then tied it at 3-all in the fifth when Makenzie Amend shot an RBI single up the middle.
Amend earned the complete-game victory, but maxed out her 14-inning limit for the day.
Wheeling Park 2, Ripley 0: Amend carried a no-hitter into the sixth and pitched the Patriots to an elimination-game upset of Ripley (30-5).
Myranda Murphy’s single was the lone hit allowed by Amend, who struck out three and walked three.
Wheeling Park scored both runs in the third inning, using Ateria Walker’s bases-loaded single and a Ripley error.