CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Man coach Mike Crosby isn’t sure senior Ryan Cozart can touch 80 miles per hour on the radar gun.
Crosby also knows velocity isn’t imperative to Cozart’s success, which the right-hander showed Friday night by tossing a 98-pitch complete game and holding Charleston Catholic in check to key the Hillbillies to a 7-3 victory in a Class A semifinal at Power Park.
“I use the old saying Ryan could knock a gnat out of the air,” Crosby said. “His control is phenomenal and he and my assistant Jack Daniels have established a relationship. Jack calls the pitches and they can read each others’ minds. They set a lot of hitters up.
“Ryan may only throw 76-78 and occasionally touch 80 miles an hour, but when his curve ball is working and he’s locating everything, that fastball comes out sometimes looking about 85 or 90 if they’re not ready for it.”
The win moves No. 3 Man (22-9) into Saturday’s state title game against top seed Moorefield with first pitch set for approximately 5 p.m.
The No. 2 Irish saw their season come to and end at 25-11.
“Hats off to Ryan Cozart,” Catholic coach Bill Mehle said. “He pitched a heck of a game. When we saw him earlier in the season, they’d just come off a state basketball championship. So we knew he was going to keep getting better over the last five weeks and he sure did.
“He had a tough time the first time we saw him locating his strikes and he threw all of his pitches for strikes today and kept us off balance. He was the difference maker.”
Cozart was around the strike zone all night, recording 21 outs without issuing a walk, while limiting Catholic to seven hits. Only one of the three runs Cozart allowed was earned, with the Hillbillies having to overcome several defensive misuces to move on.
“I know I don’t throw the hardest and I’m not going to blow anything by someone, so I try to have control,” Cozart said.
Cozart also benefitted from pitching with a lead from the second inning on after MHS pushed a pair of runs across in the top of the second.
The Hillbillies loaded the bases with no outs, but Catholic pitcher Jake Hufford got two outs before allowing a run. With the first run and momentum hanging in the balance, Man leadoff hitter Caleb Blevins delivered a key two-run double to give his team a 2-0 edge.
“Caleb has been huge ever since they won the championship in basketball and he transferred over,” Crosby said.
The Irish stranded a pair of baserunners in the second, before Cozart retired the side in order in the third.
MHS took complete control with a three-run fourth that put the Irish in a five-run hole. Man produced four straight two-out hits, the first of which was a double from Preston Blankenship, who scored moments later on a Casey Hurley single. Hurley scored the team’s fourth run on Cozart’s single, while Jace Adkins drew a bases loaded walk to up the advantage to 5-0.
“One thing about this team is we’ve hit the baseball really well,” Crosby said. “We come into this tournament with a team average of about .360 and that’s not real common. They’ve been up to the challenge all year long.“
With a chance to get back into the game in the home half of the fourth, Catholic stranded a pair in scoring position.
“We didn’t execute with runners in scoring position,” Mehle said.
Hurley’s sacrifice fly in the fifth made it 6-0, before the Irish scored in the sixth on an error for their first run.
A seventh-inning RBI single from Hurley allowed MHS to regain its six-run lead.
Catholic had two hits and took advantage of two Man errors in the seventh to score twice, with Hufford’s single providing the team’s lone RBI in the loss.
“We try to get the lead early and it builds more confidence early when you get a lead like that,” Cozart said.
Hufford took the loss after allowing 12 hits and six runs, four of which were earned, over six innings
Man’s 13-hit attack was keyed by Hurley, who was 3-for-4 with three RBIs. Blankenship, Cozart, Adkins and Josh Lambert added two hits apiece in the win.
MHS will have a chance to win its first state championship since 2014 when it tries to dethrone two-time defending champion Moorefield.
“They have a good shot,” Mehle said. “It’s going to be an excellent game tomorrow.”