CHARLESTON, W.Va. — With standout Jake Carr on the mound Saturday against Wheeling Park, St. Albans coach Rick Whitman didn’t figure his team would need much offense to advance to the Class AAA title game.
Fortunately for Whitman, the was as good as expected and the offense came to life in the fifth inning to lead the Red Dragons to a 4-1 victory in a semifinal at Appalachian Power Park.
“We were able to find a way to manufacture a few runs,” Whitman said. “When you have Jake Carr on the mound and you get the lead, everyone feels good. He wasn’t great today, but he grinded it out and gave us everything he had.”
The win puts top seed St. Albans (33-4) in Sunday’s AAA title game against No. 2 Hurricane.
Carr, a WVU signee, had more difficulty than usual with his location and issued six walks. But he also struck out 11 while working around the control issues and held Wheeling Park (20-10) to one hit through five innings and three hits over 6 2/3 innings.
“My velocity was down, and I had six walks and that’s not typical me,” Carr said. “But we got timely hits when it mattered. Since we scored no runs against them last year, I told the guys just give me one run and that’s all I’ll need. They actually gave me four.”
Although Carr walked four over the first three innings, he struck out six, including the side in the second inning.
The Red Dragons went on top for good with a run in the home half of the third. Travis Atkins had a one-out infield single, stole second and scored on a two-out double off the bat of leadoff hitter Casey Kemplin.
Park produced its first hit in the fourth inning — a two-out double by James Salvatori — but stranded a pair of runners.
Carr retired the side in order in the fifth, and when he came back out to toe the rubber in the sixth, the Red Dragons had upped their lead to 4-0.
Darin Flowers started the bottom of the fifth with a double to left and was successfully sacrificed to third by Travis Atkins, who reached on a high throw to first base.
After Atkins stole second, No. 9 hitter Ayden Hodges delivered a single to center to score courtesy runner Brandon Lucas.
“Our lineup is pretty solid all the way through and that’s why we’ve won 33 games,” Whitman said. “If the top of the lineup is clicking and the bottom’s not, then that’s OK. But sometimes the bottom has to pick the top up and that’s kind of what happened today.”
Hodges’ hit marked the end of Isaac Hines’ outing on the mound, but reliever Trevor Thomas hit Kemplin and walked Carr to bring the Red Dragons’ third run in. Noah Cummings’ sacrifice fly to center made it 4-0.
Carr allowed a leadoff triple to Trevor Thomas in the sixth and Thomas scored on Ben Taylor’s groundout to second.
Park had a chance to draw closer that inning when it put runners on the corners, but Carr induced an inning-ending fly out off the bat of Bryce Bauer.
“Baseball is a game of timely hitting and we couldn’t get a couple of timely hits,” Patriots’ coach Steve Myers said. “But hats off to him. He bared down when he had to and he’s a good pitcher. Our guys fought until the end and that’s the character of them all season. A timely hit or two maybe could’ve changed the outcome.”
Carr struck out the first two batters he faced in the seventh before reaching his 110-pitch limit. That brought on Connor Fizer, who yielded a single to Mason Richardson before recording the save.
Atkins was 2-for-2 with a pair of runs to key the Red Dragons’ six-hit effort.
Salvatori had a pair of hits in defeat.
Hines threw four innings and allowed four runs on five hits. He struck out three and walked one while suffering the loss.
The Red Dragons are now one win away from their second state championship in three seasons.
“You can’t win a state championship unless you’re playing for it,” Whitman said. “We’re giving ourselves the opportunity to do that. One of the two teams playing for it tomorrow will play better than the other one and take home the trophy.”