MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — In a unique matchup of top-ranked teams that will both play for conference championships on Friday, Class AA No. 1 Wheeling Central Catholic defeated Class AAAA No. 1 Morgantown, 6-2 at Dale Miller Field.
The Maroon Knights (16-4) collected their tenth consecutive victory a day before facing Barnesville, Ohio in the OVAC 3A Championship game.
“Both teams have a championship tomorrow. So you never know what you are going to get. Talking to Coach [Pat] Sherald, he was kind of the same way, you never know what you are going to get the day before a championship. It was a good game with two really, really good teams. Morgantown is one of the premier programs in the state. For us to come down here and get a win against them, it says a lot about our guys,” said Wheeling Central Catholic head coach Todd Cover.
“We have won the OVAC the last two years, so we are going for a three-peat. That’s one of our two goals that we set out for the team, win the OVAC Championship and then hopefully go on and win state. First things first, we’ve got a championship game tomorrow. After that, we’ll take it from there.”
Morgantown (19-4) will face Steubenville, Ohio Friday in the OVAC 5A Championship.
Wheeling Central Catholic junior Brady Ernest tossed a complete game for the Maroon Knights. He allowed one earned run and five hits. Ernest struck out four batters while frequently getting ahead in counts in most at bats.
“He was just throwing strikes. If he is throwing strikes, he’s got pretty good stuff. He has enough of a fastball to keep you off the curveball. And he’s got a really good curveball. For him to get ahead in counts, which he did today, that’s really big for us. And when they hit the ball, we made some pretty good plays in the field behind him.”
Ernest also drove in half of Central’s runs. He delivered a run-scoring single in the first inning to give the Maroon Knights a 2-0 lead. In the third inning, Ernest connected for a two-run home run, extending their advantage to 4-1.
“It is a cold night and they had a really good pitcher throwing against us. We weren’t really sure how many runs they were going to get. Him getting that out I think loosened our guys up a little bit and it expanded the lead a little bit.”
Zayne Rosnick led Central with three hits and he reached base in all four of his plate appearances. Ernest and Jake Brown each had two hits while Rosnick and Brown reached scored two runs.
Mason Bowers and Bean Nipper both had two hits for the Mohigans. MHS starting pitcher Grayson Campbell struck out seven batters in 6.1 innings of work. Tim Bradley served as MHS’ head coach for this game after Pat Sherald was ejected from Tuesday’s victory over RCB.