(Photos by Teran Malone)
SOUTH CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Just hours after a walk-off, 3-2 defeat at the hands of Petersburg in their Class A state tournament opener, Buffalo stayed alive with a 13-5, five-inning win over Midland Trail.
The Bison (19-13) will face Petersburg (26-9) in an elimination game Thursday at 9:30 a.m. The winner will face St. Marys (30-3) in the championship round at 2 p.m.
Buffalo scored four runs in the first, two in the second and seven in the fourth to close out the game early. The first four batters of the game for BHS scored. In the fourth inning, Breigh Martin hit a grand slam and Makenlee Null followed that up with a three-run home run.
Kelsey Brock, Trinity Winter and Kiera Cochran each had two hits for Buffalo. Starting pitcher Kimberly Dillman pitched the first three innings and re-entered to pitch the final frame. In her four innings, she allowed one run on two hits and she struck out four batters.
Midland Trail (20-9) scored their five runs in the final two innings of the game. Madison Rader and Nevaeh Hall hit back-to-back run-scoring doubles in the fourth and Jesse Skaggs later added a run-scoring single.