SOUTH CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Herbert Hoover had a significant advantage in state tournament experience on PikeView, which was appearing on this stage for the first time.
The No. 6 Panthers hung in for the majority of their Class AAA State Tournament matchup contest against the Huskies, but a combination of squandered scoring opportunities and better at bats from the opponent as the game progressed proved too much to overcome.
Hoover created separation with three runs in the fifth inning and four more in the sixth to finish off an 8-0 win at The Rock Field B at Little Creek Park.
“It’s been that way about all year. The defense has played well and kept us in games until our offense has sort of gotten rolling,” Hoover coach Missy Smith said.
The contest was scoreless through three-and-a-half innings before the third-seeded Huskies (25-8) produced the first run without a hit.
It came after Bella Haas worked a leadoff walk and moved up a base on each of the first two outs. A walk drawn by Campbell Lunsford positioned runners at the corners and Haas scored from third moments later on a wild pitch with teammate Katelyn Board in the batter’s box.
The Panthers (22-8) offered a strong response to their first deficit and singles from Bella Delida and Taylor Wright, along with a fielder’s choice that saw Annie White reach first, created a bases loaded situation with no outs.
Kaylyn Harper dug in and struck out Emma Weiss for the first out, before inducing a ground ball to the pitching circle from Zoey Tupper that led to a second out at the plate.
Still, PHS was a hit away from leading or tying the matchup and it looked as if the Panthers would produce it when Shelby Maddox connected for a hard-hit line drive that was snagged by Harper, whose alert catch allowed her to preserve a shutout.
“That looked like two runs right there and it would’ve been a 2-1 game with that one hit,” PikeView coach Steve Compton said.
Escaping the jam unscathed sparked the Hoover offense, which got a fifth-inning leadoff triple from Emma Hanson, who scored on Liz Turner’s single to make it 2-0.
Later in the fifth, Ayva Veltri doubled her team’s lead with a two-out, two-run single.
“The more pitches we saw today, the better we got, which we hoped would happen,” Smith said. “There’s a lot of good pitching at the state tournament and we knew coming in that it wasn’t going to be easy. We stayed the course, finally got to hit some good pitches instead of chasing what she was throwing. We put a couple hits together and that was it.”
Harper retired PikeView in order in the sixth and the Huskies ended the matchup early by continuing with quality at bats in the home half of that inning and scoring four more.
Hanson drove in her team’s first run that inning with a double to left, and the Huskies added three straight run-scoring singles from Kyleigh Elmore, Haas and Veltri, the latter of which marked the final at bat of the game.
“Our defense stepped up and they made some defensive plays themselves,” Smith said. “The score is not indicative of the game.”
Harper pitched six innings and struck out five over a three-hitter without issuing a free pass.
Veltri and Hanson had two hits apiece to combine for half of the Huskies’ eight knocks. Hanson, with a double and triple, accounted for both Hoover extra-base hits.
Maddox suffered the loss. She surrendered eight hits and issued five walks while striking out six.
The Panthers look to prolong their season later Tuesday against Brooke in an elimination game.
“I’m not throwing in the towel by any means,” Compton said. “We’ll regroup with a little break and then we’ll be ready to play this evening.”