CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Cabell Midland’s fourth “elimination game” victory in four days allowed the Knights to claim the Mountain State Athletic Conference Tournament title with an 8-3 win over St. Albans at GoMart Ballpark.
The Knights defeated South Charleston and Capital on Wednesday and Thursday, respectively, to earn the fourth and final spot in the tournament field. Wins over Hurricane and St. Albans allowed CMHS (15-9) to secure the championship.
“Big game last night against Hurricane with the quality team they have. Then coming back against St. Albans, a heck of a team there too,” said Cabell Midland head coach Tracy Brumfield. “We’ve been on the road all five days this week — Hurricane, South Charleston, Capital, here last night and here again tonight. That’s a lot to say about our kids.”
Just like they did in their semifinal win over Hurricane, the Knights quickly jumped out to a sizable lead in the opening innings. After scoring four runs in the first two innings Friday against the Redskins, Midland jumped out to a 5-0 lead through two innings against the Red Dragons.
“You get up two or three runs early in the game and you get to sit back and relax. You are not so tense if you have no runs at all.”
Staked to an early lead, senior Cade Johnson was dominant on the hill for Cabell Midland. He finished one out short of a complete game victory. Johnson struck out 11 batters.
“He’s thrown the ball well this year for us. He gets in trouble sometimes when he overthrows. But I told him, ‘Just stay within yourself. You can’t throw hard all the time. Stay within yourself and work with your off-speed stuff’. His off-speed makes his fastball even faster.”
Seth Hinkle, Braylon Wing and Brady Ballou all collected two-run base hits for the Knights, accounting for six of their eight runs. Hinkle, Wing, Eli McGinnis and Cruz Hunt all had multi-hit games for Cabell Midland.
The Knights have won seven of their last nine games after an 8-7 start to the season.
“We’re getting healthy. We’ve had a lot of injuries this year. Our catcher right now is playing behind the plate with a torn muscle in his bicep. Our third baseman just came off a hamstring injury. Just getting healthy right now and kids believing in themselves.
“We can’t assume that we are going to win games because this happened. We’ve got to keep on fighting and grinding and find ways to win ballgames.”
Gavin Comer went 2-for-4 for St. Albans (18-5) and he drove in two runs. Brayden Smith scored twice for the Red Dragons.
In placement games earlier on Saturday, Woodrow Wilson defeated No. 11 South Charleston, 6-5, No. 8 Parkersburg defeated No. 7 Riverside, 3-2 and No. 5 George Washington defeated No. 6 Huntington 12-3.