CHARLESTON, W.Va. — As zeroes continued to fill up the scoreboard at GoMart Park in the MSAC Championship game between George Washington and Hurricane, it looked increasingly likely that one run would be enough to secure the league championship.
GW’s Chuck Kelley took care of that with one swing of the bat and a nonstop trip around the bases. Kelley’s inside-the-park home run on the third pitch of the bottom of the seventh secured the MSAC title for the Patriots in a 1-0 win over the Redskins.
Kelley hit a line drive that got past a diving attempt in right field. The ball trickled onto the warning track and Kelley never broke stride before coming home with the game’s lone run.
“Run as hard as I can and look for [Coach] Davis to see if I was going home or not,” Kelley said about his trip around the bases.
“I was going to do a little swim move slide if it was going to be close. But I saw the catcher wasn’t in receiving position. So I just tried to step on home and find my teammates.”
“I told him before he went up there that he was going to come through,” said GW head coach Mike Davis. “Sometimes you call it right when you are a coach. Fortunately, we were able to instill some confidence there and the ball landed our way.”
Starting pitchers Ryan Bowman and Slade Barton each tossed six scoreless innings. Barton was replaced by Luke Gordon for the seventh inning, where he retired the Hurricane side in order. Barton struck out six batters and allowed four hits. He stranded the bases loaded in the first inning and left runners on in each of the next four innings.
“Slade threw the ball incredibly well,” Davis said. “That’s about as good as I have seen him look there. And Luke came in and did a job. When you throw the ball like that, you are ultimately giving yourself an opportunity to come through.”
The MSAC championship is the first in school history for the Patriots (17-6). GW did not allow a run in their two tournament games.
“Another unbelievable baseball game on back-to-back nights. Like yesterday, it came down to who was going to make the first mistake. We were able to play clean enough,” Davis said.
“Anytime you can beat Hurricane twice in one year, it doesn’t happen very often. You have done a good job and obviously we get to do it on this stage. Tons of respect for those guys. They are just an outstanding, storied program.”
“It helps tremendously with confidence and getting on a roll,” Kelley said. “We have tough games coming up and then obviously playoffs are on the way. We’re just happy to win and we’ll get back to work tomorrow.”
Bowman allowed just three hits and he struck out five batters for the Redskins (18-4).
Corbin Dixon had two hits for the Patriots and he threw out a pair of runners on steal attempts. Tyler Baxter had two of the four hits for Hurricane.
In placement games earlier on Tuesday, No. 7 St. Albans defeated No. 8 Riverside, 12-2 and No. 6 Huntington defeated No. 5 Parkersburg, 6-0.