BRIDGEPORT, W.Va. — There was concern from Class AAAA No. 3 Morgantown early into Friday’s matchup against No. 5 Washington as part of the McDonald’s Classic at the Bridgeport Recreation Complex.
Sophomore Jackson Bredeson stepped up in a major way to help ease those concerns for the time being.
After replacing standout starting pitcher Slade Barton in the second inning with the game tied at 1, Bredeson went on throw the remaining 5.2 innings and limited the Patriots to three runs on five hits, while striking out seven to help key the Mohigans to an 8-4 victory.
“Real proud of Jackson Bredeson. Our starting pitcher had a little tightness and nothing that’s a big deal, but Jackson had to come in and ends up throwing the rest of the way,” MHS coach Pat Sherald said. “He went out and did an excellent job for us. It’s never an easy challenge coming in when you weren’t expected to pitch and I’m real proud of his effort.”
Sherald paid a visit to the mound in the first inning, which saw Barton surrender a solo home run to Connor Smith and strikeout the other three batters he faced.
Barton recorded a fourth strikeout to start the second inning, then induced a ground ball off the bat of Patriots’ starting pitcher Alex Danner, who ultimately reached on an error.
At that point, Sherald came back to the mound and decided to bring on Bredeson, though he expressed no longterm concern regarding the status of Barton, a West Virginia University signee.
“He’s a high velocity guy,” Sherald said. “Sometimes you can be thrown off. When he went out the second inning, I didn’t see the velocity jump and I just thought let’s be overly cautious here. He’s a prospect going to WVU, so in that situation, we have to be overly cautious. A little rest and I think he’ll be right back at it.”
With the game tied at 1 in the top of the third, MHS (14-2) went in front for good.
Bredeson led off the inning with a hustle double and scored moments later when Kai Henkins followed with a single to center.
Henkins took second on a wild pitch and crossed the plate for his team’s third run when Brayden Gorby singled to center.
Gorby scored later in the third on a balk to leave the Mohigans with a 4-1 advantage.
The Patriots (10-7) battled back in the home half of the inning and pulled to within a run when Danner helped his cause with a two out, two-run single to left.
MHS still led 4-3 at the start of the fifth, before Gorby drew a leadoff walk, took second on a balk, stole third and scored on Mason Bowers’ single to right.
Bowers would eventually move up to third on a stolen base and passed ball before scoring on Ryan Nipper’s sacrifice fly that made it 6-3.
“We let the leadoff guy for them reach almost every inning except for the last inning,” WHS coach Jay Earl said. “With their team speed, the way they bunt the ball and move runners, it’s tough to stop. Last night [in an 11-1 win against Martinsburg], we didn’t allow one leadoff runner, and tonight, we let the leadoff guy on almost every time. They had guys in scoring position all night long. We didn’t get our leadoff guys on and that was the difference in the game.”
MHS turned a 6-4-3 double play to end the fifth, and scored twice more in the seventh to add to its lead — first on a WHS error and again when Silvers crossed the plate on a wild pitch.
Sven Dupree’s run-scoring single with two outs in the bottom of the seventh provided the Patriots with their fourth run before Bredeson finished off the strong showing.
“To have him step in like that is a testament to his character and the character of our team,” Sherald said.
MHS was held to five hits, but scored twice off a sacrifice fly, including one from Silvers for the game’s first run.
Additionally, the Mohigans stole eight bases and their leadoff batter reached in all but two frames.
“We did some good things on the base paths that gave us an opportunity to manufacture some runs,” Sherald said.
Danner threw four innings and allowed six runs. He struck out one and walked a pair in defeat.
Dupree and Smith had two hits apiece for Washington, which finished with six hits some 15 hours after the win over Martinsburg.
“We knew about this for a while and we were up for the challenge. I don’t think we played terrible,” Earl said. “They just did a little bit more.”