NUTTER FORT, W.Va. — Lincoln shortstop Colton Edwards fielded a ground ball off the bat of Petersburg’s Broty Sites and flipped to second baseman Jacob Holt for a force out.
With that, the Cougars wrapped up a 4-0 victory against the Vikings on Thursday at Frank Loria Memorial Field, and in the process, LHS secured one of two spots from Region II in the upcoming Class AA state tournament.
It marks the Cougars’ first state tournament appearance since 2009.
“It’s been a long time. The kids wanted it so badly,” Cougars’ coach Greg Smith said. “We had faith in them no matter the setup of a game or the weather. We wanted to go make the plays and get the win, and I’m super proud of them.”
In a game that began just before 10:30 a.m. as a result of Petersburg’s graduation ceremony later Thursday, the left arm of Jacob Bart proved pivotal in the outcome.
Pitching at a far more pitcher-friendly venue than his home field, Bart allowed four hits, one of which was a single to Payton Metheny to start the contest.
“It’s a big change, because ours is hitter-friendly and a small ballpark, but regardless, we had faith that Jacob was going to throw strikes and our defense was going to make enough plays to win a game, and that’s what happened today,” Smith said. “We had some timely hitting and made it happen.”
Bart worked around Lukas Wolford’s infield single to start the top of the second, and when he took the mound for the third, he did so the beneficiary of a 1-0 lead.
That came after Alex Greene led off the bottom of the second with a single for the second-seeded Cougars, and a two-out single from Christoper Mazzei plated Jacob Holt with the first run.
Lincoln (21-12) doubled its lead in the third after loading the bases with no outs on an Edwards single and base-on-balls drawn by Anthony Belcastro and Abruzzino. PHS starting pitcher Owen Reel was able to limit the damage, however, as Greene drove in the second run on a sacrifice fly, but the Cougars were otherwise unable to add to their advantage.
With how the left-handed Bart was pitching, it hardly mattered.
The junior retired Petersburg (11-20) in order in the fourth and fifth, striking out three over those two frames and inducing three fly balls for the remaining outs.
Along the way, Bart continued working at a rapid pace and never lost rhythm.
“That’s been him this year. He gets on the mound ready to go,” Smith said. “Halfway through the year, we started saying we have to slow you down a little bit, because he was losing control. But he’s been slowing down his mechanics as he’s delivering to home and it’s been unbelievable for him. He gets into a groove and when he steps on the mound, he’s ready to go and wanting to get after it. He threw an unbelievable game today and kept them off balance.”
LHS capitalized on an error in the fifth to make it 3-0 as a throw to first got away with two outs, allowing Brycen Moore to reach and courtesy runner Chasen Sipher to score.
The Vikings had perhaps their best scoring chance in the sixth when Metheny led off with a ground-rule double over the right field fence.
But Petersburg’s leadoff hitter never advanced past second, as Bart induced a pop on the infield for the first out followed by consecutive ground balls to keep his shutout intact.
“We were in the game, but just didn’t hit,” PHS coach Mike Landis said. “We had our leadoff guy on five times and didn’t score a run. Give credit to their pitcher for pitching well. He stayed around the plate and they made the plays and hit the ball when they needed to.”
Greene worked a bases loaded walk in the sixth to up his team’s advantage to 4-0, and Bart worked around an error and Carter Hardy’s two-out single in the seventh to go the distance without allowing a run.
Bart struck out nine and did not issue a walk.
“His determination and location is so good,” Edwards said of his teammate. “He might not blow it past you, but he’s going to spot it and put it to where we can make the plays in the field. He trusts his defense no matter what.”
Reel was strong in defeat and allowed five hits across six innings, though he did walk five.
Metheny, Greene and Mazzei had two hits apiece in a contest that featured nine.
It marked the Vikings’ third game of the week in Harrison County. They lost Monday at South Harrison, avoided elimination Tuesday with a home win over Berkeley Springs and stayed alive again Wednesday by exacting revenge against the Hawks in Lost Creek.
Some 8 hours after getting back Petersburg late Wednesday, the Vikings made the lengthy trip back to North Central West Virginia.
“I was joking around and said we had bus lag,” Landis said. “We got off the bus about 11:30 last night and were back on the bus at 7 this morning, but that kind of stuff can happen in the postseason tournament, and you just have to roll with it.”