First and Ben

 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...