SOUTH CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Cabell Midland’s Audrea Watts struggled with her command for large stretches of Friday’s Class AAAA state tournament contest against St. Albans.
However, it never reached the point that the Red Dragons could solve Watts, who largely overcame issuing seven walks by throwing a no-hitter with 11 strikeouts to lift the Knights to a 6-1 victory at The Rock at Little Creek Park.
“Both pitchers did a pretty good job pitching in the conditions we had,” Knights’ head coach Herman Beckett said. “It either felt like a monsoon or tornado out there. I knew it was going to be a tough game. We strung together that one inning and it was enough to get us home. You get Audrea a run or two, she’s that much harder to hit.”
With the result, Cabell Midland (26-3) moves into a winner’s bracket matchup with defending state champion University, while St. Albans (15-12) will battle Jefferson in an elimination game.
Neither team managed to score over the first three innings. The Red Dragons stranded a runner in scoring position in both the second and third, while the Knights stranded the first two runners they got into scoring position in the third.
“Timely hitting is what we were missing,” Red Dragons’ head coach Katie Adams said.
But Midland’s fortunes began to change in the fourth when they got to St. Albans pitcher Ava Bentley.
Ellie McCormill, Watts and Madison McCallister accounted for consecutive singles to start that inning, and Katelynn Harless followed with a double to center that made it 2-0.
The Knights added to their advantage in that inning with three run-scoring singles provided by Hayla Norris, Nicole Harris and Becca Conrad, leaving SAHS facing a 5-0 deficit.
The Red Dragons managed their lone run in the home half of the fourth after Kinzie Short drew a one-out walk, moved to second on an error, third on a groundout and scored on a wild pitch.
Despite never recording a hit, St. Albans threatened to get back in the game in the sixth when Carlee Parker, Cece Lackey and Alyssa Gibson each drew a base-on-balls before an out had been recorded.
Watts never wavered and struck out Short for an all-important first out. Ali Long followed with a fly ball deep enough to right that it looked as though it would bring in Parker with the team’s second run. Yet on appeal, it was ruled Parker had left the third base bag early, which instead created the final out of the sixth.
“She’s a great pitcher and one of the best in the state by far. We have to take what she gives us and we didn’t do that,” Adams said.
The Knights added a sixth run in the seventh after Harris led off with a single and scored on a Baylee Smith groundout.
Watts finished off the complete game in strong fashion, retiring the side in order with back-to-back strikeouts to finish things off.
“Her rise and drop ball, that’s her bread and butter,” Beckett said. “She has that two-seamer and four-seamer both and they’re both pretty effective.”
Nine different Knights had at least one hit. Harris led the way with three, while Watts added a pair to help her cause in the circle.
Bentley struck out four and did not issue a walk in defeat.
“Ava threw well. Some shaky defense cost us, but she competed,” Adams said. “The weather wasn’t great, and she handled herself really well.”