WINFIELD, W.Va. — One strike away from playoff elimination, Point Pleasant extended the second game of the Class AAA Region IV series to extra innings before defeating Winfield, 3-2. The Big Blacks forced a decisive game Wednesday back at Point Pleasant.
Trailing 1-0 with the bases empty and two out in the top of the seventh, back-to-back base hits from Carrsen Lambert and Gavin Barnett tied the game at 1. Barnett drove an 0-2 pitch to left field, scoring Lambert from second base.
“We have been talking about staying in the at bats all season long and playing all 21 outs and not giving up. They did that,” said Point Pleasant head coach Andrew Blain. “They put some really good ABs together tonight. I thought we had good ABs last night. We just weren’t the beneficiaries of the balls finding the gaps or the holes. They did tonight. We had timely hitting. We didn’t have that last night.”
Winfield defeated Point Pleasant, 4-3 in Monday’s best-of-three series opener.
In the eighth inning, Jackson Redman’s two-run single gave Point Pleasant (20-10) their first lead of the game, 3-1. Winfield answered with one run in the bottom of the frame on a sacrifice fly from Preston Keiffer. However, Talan Pearson retired the next two batters to earn the win with three effective innings of relief. He allowed two hits. Starting pitcher Anthony Marrero allowed one run in five innings.
“I thought Anthony Marrero threw a heck of a game. He made his pitches. He made some big pitches when he needed to. He located well and his changeup was working. He has done what our pitchers have done all year long. They have kept us in ball games.”
Winfield (22-7) took a 1-0 lead in the third inning with a run-scoring single from Blake Withrow. Good defense kept Point in the game in the middle innings. Carson Finnicum threw out three baserunners attempting to steal in the fifth and sixth innings.
“I know they like to run the bases and they are really good at it. They are aggressive and they’ve got the speed. And they can kill you with that. But we were able to come out on top. [Finnicum] made some excellent throws.
“Those were huge. People maybe don’t realize how big those outs were because those are extra runs right there.”
The scene shifts back to Mason County for the decisive game of the series Wednesday. The winner advances to the Class AAA state tournament.
“I told them, ‘You guys enjoy every second of this tonight. But tomorrow when you wake up, we’ve got to go back to work. This is forgotten about and we have to do what we need to do to win Game 3.
“It is not going to be easy. It shouldn’t be easy. But we are right where we want to be.”
Barnett went 3-for-3 and he reached base in all four of his plate appearances for Point.
Withrow pitched 6.2 innings for Winfield. He allowed one run one six hits while striking out eight batters. Withrow also had two hits.