WESTON, W.Va. — Class AAA No. 2 Bridgeport started Monday’s matchup at Class AA No. 4 Lewis County in the exact fashion it hoped not to — stranding a pair of runners in its first trip to the plate, and then allowing two runs when the Minutemen came to bat.
When LCHS scored twice more in the home half of the second, the Minutemen were in the driver’s seat to claim the Big 10 Conference Championship, which they would have secured with a win.
Instead, Bridgeport answered the call and capitalized on several defensive miscues, while utilizing four shutdown frames from relief pitcher Carson Currey to reel off nine unanswered runs and battle back for a 9-4 victory.
“Here we are down 4-0 and I liked the fight in our kids,” Bridgeport head coach Robert Shields said. “They went up there and had a different approach after we got behind.“
Lewis County (15-5) capitalized on Brayden Carder being hit by a pitch to open the bottom of the first inning, and after Joey Aman’s double to left, Carder and Aman scored courtesy of Trenton Hunt’s two-run single to left.
Bridgeport (24-4) left the bases loaded in the second, then allowed another two-run single from Hunt after the Minutemen made the most of a Tribe error to start the second — Bridgeport’s only defensive miscue of the matchup.
Trailing by four, BHS ran into its final out of the second inning at third base, and starting pitcher Rowen Michaelis ran into more trouble in the bottom of that inning, but induced a pivotal inning-ending double play to second off the bat of Ryder Aman with the bases loaded.
“It was a big 4-6-3 double play to get us out of that inning,” Shields said. “Lewis is a very good hitting, aggressive team and to hold them to four runs is a credit to our pitchers.”
Michaelis escape the third with no damage done became even more vital when Mark Biafore laced an 0-2 pitch over the left field fence to start the top of the fourth, cutting the Indians’ deficit to 4-1 in the process.
Biafore’s home run was the start of a five-run inning that featured a costly Minutemen error as well as three BHS batters being hit by a pitch, including Brody Pierce and Ben Bifano, both of which came with the bases loaded and forced in a run.
“Mark Biafore starts with that leadoff home run and everything fell into place,” Shields said.
Leading 5-4 in the middle of the fourth, the Indians removed Michaelis in favor of Currey, who induced two fly ball outs and struck out Hunt in his first inning of work.
“He hits his spots and does a good job,” Shields said.
With all the momentum in its favor, Bridgeport began the fifth with a Conner Blake single, Ashton Curry bunt single and Michael Romano base-on-balls to load the bases.
Kasen Baun was then hit by a pitch to bring in the Tribe’s sixth run, and later in that inning, Romano hustled home from third to score on a wild pitch and Zach Rohrig belted a ground rule double to left-center, scoring Baun with he team’s eighth run.
“We got complacent. We’ve talked for a few weeks about not getting complacent,” Minutemen head coach Tyler Wood said. “We’d won a lot of games and we got a little too comfortable and that’s what we did tonight. We were right there with the foot on the neck and couldn’t press down on it. As far as the energy goes, it has to be there the whole game. It can’t be there one inning and gone the next.”
That was more than enough support for Currey, who retired the side in order in the fifth and sixth innings to keep the four-run advantage intact.
Bifano lifted a sacrifice fly to plate Rohrig with the final run of the game in the top of the seventh, and Joey Aman’s seventh-inning single marked the lone Minutemen baserunner against Currey. He struck out four over his four scoreless innings.
Biafore, Blake and Curry recorded two hits apiece as the trio finished with all but two of its team’s hits.
Joey Aman led all players with three hits and Hunt added two in defeat. Hunt took the loss after allowing eight runs on seven hits and three walks in four-plus innings. He was replaced by Joey Aman, who limited BHS to one run in three innings.
The Minutemen hurt their case with five errors.
“It’s just not having your head in the game and not being present. You can’t be looking ahead or looking back,” Wood said. “You have to be where your feet are at and be present. Right now, we have a lot of guys that are not present.”
The Indians and Minutemen both entered the matchup with one loss in Big 10 Conference play. With the result, Bridgeport takes sole possession of first place in the league and can wrap up the Big 10 championship Tuesday by defeating Grafton.
“It’s something that’s kind of got away from us the last couple years, but we’re not playing for conference championships,” Shields said. “We’re playing for something bigger than that.”