GLENVILLE, W.Va. — With Williamstown starting pitcher Carson Hill struggling to locate the strike zone early in Friday’s Little Kanawha Conference Championship against Gilmer County, Yellowjackets’ coach Levi Maxwell felt he could wait no longer to call on a reliever.
The decision couldn’t have worked out better.
Brody Bowyer entered with one out and the bases loaded, and the Titans went on to score that inning on a sacrifice fly, but could never muster offense against Bowyer, whose stellar work over 6 2/3 innings helped key the Yellowjackets to a 10-1 victory at Glenville State’s Kenny Greenlief Field.
“Brody’s a guy we’ve been going to a lot more lately,” said Maxwell, who touched on the importance of a recent win Bowyer earned against Toronto (Ohio) as a confidence boost. “He’s been throwing strikes and keeping guys off balance and he puts zeroes up. I tip my cap to Brody.”
The Class A No. 1 Yellowjackets improved to 24-3 and claimed a conference championship after finishing runner-up each of the last three seasons.
Were it not for the Bowyer’s outing, a similar outcome may have been in store. Hill walked three of the game’s first four batters, and was removed with one out before Jacob Stewart could bat.
Stewart brought in Brody Brockleman on a sacrifice fly to give No. 4 Gilmer (23-4-1) the early lead, but the Yellowjackets recorded an inning-ending out at second base to conclude that play and keep their deficit at one.
“It’s always a game of a different out at a time. We toyed with the idea of sacrificing, but they’re really good on the corners and just a good fundamental team,” Titans’ coach Tony Conrad said. “We needed to hit the ball. We didn’t perform to our ability and we needed to hit that kid while he was in the game before they got him out of there. Once they made the switch, give the kid credit. He did what he did, so do I credit him or discredit us? It’s one of those 50/50 things, but overall, we had an uncharacteristic night for our team.”
Still, Titans’ starting pitcher Christopher Junkins was sharp early, and after retiring WHS in order on three fly balls to start, Junkins escaped trouble in the second and induced a ground ball to third off the bat of Jenner Burge to strand two in scoring position.
Brockleman doubled with one out in the third for one of Gilmer’s three hits off Bowyer, who recorded one of his three strikeouts facing Colton Hall with Brockleman at third to end the inning.
“I’m trying to strike some people out, but don’t give up free bases and win the game with the defense behind me,” Bowyer said.
WHS pulled even in the home half of that frame courtesy of a Maxwell Molessa double to right, which the West Virginia University signee drove in teammate Wyatt Powell on.
The game stayed tied at 1 until the bottom of the fourth. Hill singled with one out and was at third with two outs and Burge in the batter’s box. He came off third base in aggressive fashion and made the most of an opportunity that he saw, darting for the plate as soon as Titans’ catcher Dayne Murphy sent the ball back to Junkins, whose threw home, but not in time to stop Hill from scoring the go-ahead run.
“Carson does an excellent job on the bases. I told him be alert, be ready and if it’s there, take it,” Maxwell said. “We trust our guys to make the right decision and he made a great decision to steal that bag. It put us up a run and we’d been struggling a bit, but that momentum got us going.”
On the play, Hill suffered an injury to a finger that forced his exit from the game, but before putting the momentum squarely on his team’s side.
“As a pitcher, getting ahead is huge. That’s a selfless play by Carson to score that run,” Bowyer said. “That’s a game-changer.”
The Titans came unraveled in the bottom of the fifth as their 2-1 deficit grew to four runs. Powell scored the first run of the inning on an error after drawing a leadoff base-on-balls, and after Braylon Mercer took over for Junkins with runners at the corners, WHS scored twice more — on a Luke Ankrom sacrifice fly and Wyatt Siley’s single, which brought home teammate Ty Ott.
“We got caught off guard on a delayed steal of home, and from there, we went downhill a little bit,” Conrad said.
Through a Brockleman single and a walk, GCHS had two on in the sixth, but Molessa made a nifty stop on a ball off the bat of Stewart, and fired to Parker Schramm at third base for a force out to end the threat.
Williamstown put the game out of reach with a five-run sixth that began with an error and consecutive walks. Molessa followed with a two-run single to right off Brockleman, and the Yellowjackets added three more runs, scoring first on Ott’s groundout to second that brought home Powell and later when a wild pitch allowed Molessa to come home from third and Sam Terry sent a ground ball to second that allowed Dylan Pucella to score.
“You like to score in the first inning, but sometimes it doesn’t happen. It was one run and we minimized damage that inning,” Maxwell said. “We have guys that can swing the bat. I’m not in a sense of panic. We put up a 5 spot and that’s huge late in the game. Just proud of the guys.”
Molessa had two of his team’s five hits and drive in three runs, while scoring twice. Williamstown drew seven walks.
Bowyer walked just one batter over his efficient showing.
“Brody’s been a bulldog and he’s not really afraid of a bigger situation, because he’s been in a couple of them,” Maxwell said. “He was throwing strikes. That’s all we can ask for and to play defense and be able to put runs up. This year, we’ve done an excellent job of playing seven innings.”