SHINNSTON, W.Va. — A pair of first-inning home runs and a complete game effort from senior AJ Bart have the Lincoln Cougars on the verge of a regional championship and a state tournament berth. Lincoln defeated South Harrison, 6-2 in the winners bracket final of the Class AA Region II Tournament.
Colton Edwards led off the bottom of the first inning with a home run and Alex Greene added a two-run shot later in the frame to give the Cougars a 4-0 cushion just five batters into the game.
“Our offense came out and exploded,” said Lincoln head coach Greg Smith. “We had a lot of other opportunities we left on the board. We can add and get better from today as well, which is very important when you are in the playoffs.”
South Harrison cut their deficit in half in the top of the second with a two-run home run from Jacob Watts. However, that is all Bart would allow on the mound. He yielded five hits in seven innings. Bart walked three and struck out three batters.
“That’s been AJ all year. He started off and he didn’t have his stuff. He was a little wild and wasn’t hitting his spots. But he found it. He came back and gave us a shot. We got him the lead from the get go and he found the zone after that, started hitting his spots and that was really when he kind of took over the game.
“That’s our bread and butter — throw strikes and play good defense. Colton Edwards at shortstop today made play after play. It has been hot the last few days and the field is extremely hard. There were bounces all over the place but he stepped up big for us. And our outfielders ran down some balls that could have went another way.”
Greene led the Cougars (20-12) at the plate with three hits and three runs batted in. Edwards drove in two runs. Anthony Belcastro, Jacob Holt and Christopher Mazzei each had two hits for Lincoln.
The Cougars will host the winner of Wednesday’s elimination game between South Harrison and Petersburg on Thursday in the championship round. Lincoln needs just one win in two games to advance to the state tournament.
“We’ve set ourselves up nice but we are not finished. That’s what we talked about after that game. We’re not finished. There’s still a lot of stuff we need to get better at and focus up on. We’ve put ourselves in a great opportunity. Now we’ve got to cash in and get down to Huntington.”
Watts had two of South Harrison’s (21-12) five hits in the game. Brogan Medina allowed just one run in three innings of relief of Colton Patterson and Cohen Wilfong for the Hawks.