MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Morgantown scored three runs in a five-pitch span in the fifth inning and senior pitcher Vincent Aloi turned in another impressive performance on the mound as the Mohigans gained the upper hand in the Class AAAA Region I, Section 2 tournament with a 4-1 win over University at Dale Miller Field.
Trailing 1-0 in the fifth inning, MHS (22-9) pushed three runs across the plate on run-scoring hits from Mason Bowers and Koa Silvers. Weston Mazey also scored on a throwing error to give the Mohigans a 3-1 advantage.
“Hats off to University. They played a really good game,” said Morgantown head coach Pat Sherald. “We were just able to put up a crooked number in the fifth inning and come up with the win.”
After allowing a run in the third inning, Aloi retired 12 of the final 14 batters he faced, including the final nine. Aloi needed less than 70 pitches to pick up the victory in a briskly-paced game that took just 82 minutes to complete. Aloi allowed five hits and did not walk a batter.
“He went out there and he was very efficient. He’s a senior on the mound for us. 69 pitches — I just told the boys that in the first game of the playoffs in a sectional setting, for our pitcher to go out there and be that efficient, not use our bullpen and not use anyone else, hats off to him. He really competed for us.”
MHS added a run in the sixth inning when Brooks King scored on a passed ball.
University (16-13) will host Preston Thursday in an elimination game. The winner will visit Morgantown Friday to open the sectional championship round.
“Our vision is to win the sectional. The mission is the day-to-day work. That’s what we are trying to do. We’ll come out tomorrow. We’ll practice real hard. We’ll work to get better. And then we’ll take on University or Preston, whoever wins that game. We’ll just take it one game at a time and then work from there.”
Colson Jenkins’ RBI triple in the third inning scored Curtis Quarrick for University’s run. Quarrick had two of UHS’ five hits.
Tommy Montague pitched five innings for the Hawks. He allowed just three hits.