First and Ben

 By Ben Anderson      No. 6 seeded Parkersburg South kept its season alive, eliminating the defending Class AAAA champion, Cabell Midland Knights 3-0, at Little Creek Park in Charleston, W. Va in an elimination game on Wednesday evening.       The Knights were coming off a 3-0 loss to Morgantown earlier in the morning.       Anniston Shelton delivered big for the Patriots starting at the plate. In the top of the first inning, she crushed a two-run moonshot into right field to give Parkersburg South a 2-0 lead.       She continued her dominance in the circle as well, going the distance allowing just one hit, with 11 strikeouts.       “Any pitcher that gets a couple of runs and you know that your stuff’s on and you know that you’re moving it and you’re hitting your spots, that gives huge confidence,” Parkersburg South head coach Tim Burch said. “Annie (Shelton) is definitely a bulldog when ...

 By Ben Anderson      People always say that “defense” is the name of the game in softball, for the Morgantown Mohigans, that proved to be true in its 3-0 victory over top-seeded Cabell Midland Knights in the winner’s bracket game of the 2026 WVSSAC Class AAAA State Softball Tournament on Wednesday morning.       The Mohigans’ defensive spectacle started in the top of the second, when third baseman Carolina Mallow made a diving catch behind home plate on a bunt attempt to strand two Knights runners. The Mohigans also added another amazing diving catch from second baseman Grace Robinson.      “I told them that proves to you right there that you’re one of the best teams in the state,” Mohigans head coach Lorrie Lipscomb said. “You deserve to be here, and you can win a state championship.”      Morgantown broke the scoreless tie in the top of the third when Carper Messerly scored on an aggressive, heads-up play, by taggi...

   By Ben Anderson           Late rock singer Tom Petty’s famous hit “I Won’t Back Down” was the motto for the Hurricane Redskins, as it refused to back down in an elimination game, defeating the Jefferson Cougars 9-5 on Tuesday night at the WVSSAC Class AAAA State Softball Tournament.      The Redskins were coming off falling to Morgantown, 1-0 earlier in the day, while Jefferson aimed to bounce back from a 9-0, five-inning walloping from Cabell Midland.       Hurricane attack with aggression at the plate early on, knocking in three runs in the first inning. Josie Shamblin brought home Layla Hodges. Sophie Dunlap knocked an RBI single into shallow center field to score Kiley Jones. Shaylen Scott would also find her way to home plate on the same play.        The Cougars responded with three runs in the second and third innings, before Hurricane tacked on a run in the bottom of the third to mak...

 By Ben Anderson      In the fifth battle of the Patriots, George Washington reigned supreme over Parkersburg South 6-1 in the first round of the WVSSAC State Softball Class AAAA Tournament on Tuesday afternoon.      “We executed early,” George Washington head coach Bub Hobbs said. “We were able to score some runs early in the game. Defensively, energy. I’m pleased. To have a young, relatively younger group like we have, to have the poise that they did was pretty impressive.”      George Washington, a team that is not known for strong starts, fired on all cylinders at the plate, scoring four runs in the first three innings.      “You can pull any of the girls aside and they’ll tell you what my thing is, energy,” Hobbs said. “If you have good energy, that stuff spreads like wildfire. It always does. I told my girls, if we come out flat, that’s how we’re going to play. And we’ve never been able to start fast because our ener...

 By Ben Anderson      It turns out that the Cabell Midland Knights did not need a sword to go into battle to defend its state championship, but rather the lightning arm of Drea Watts.      Watts achieved the rarest feat for a pitcher in the circle, in the Knights 9-0, five-inning run-rule victory over the Jefferson Cougars in the WVSSAC Class AAAA State Tournament.       Watts was electric at the beginning, after retiring the first batter of the game via a line-drive to third base, struck out the next eight with the first seven via going down swinging. Watts only retired four batters not via strikeout.      “I wouldn’t say that there was that much pressure.” Watts said. “Going into it, I didn’t really know what we were getting into, but after that first inning, I feel like we set the tone, and I feel like we were pretty good.”       “She’s a workhorse,” Knights assistant coach Jason Harris said. “I...

 By Ben Anderson      The 2026 NCAA Softball Tournament is just three days away and the Marshall Thundering Herd will be competing in the Durham Regional.      The other three teams in the regional will be the Arizona Wildcats, the Herd’s first day opponent, the Howard Bison, and host The Duke Blue Devils.      Let’s take a deep dive into the Durham regional, starting with the Arizona Wildcats of the Big 12 conference.      The Wildcats' postseason appearance marks Arizona's 38th selection all-time and is the 11th time in program history that Arizona will be on the road for a regional. Arizona swept the last two road regionals that the Wildcats have played in – the 2024 Fayetteville Regional and the 2022 Columbia Regional.        The Wildcats are heading into the big dance with a 35-16 (16-8 Big 12) record and ranked No. 21 in the ESPN/USA Softball Top 25 Rankings. Arizona has one of the most domin...