Parkersburg South Dethrones Cabell Midland in Elimination Game

 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 she steps into that circle.”


    Cabell Midland, after scoring nine runs in the tournament opener against Jefferson yesterday, was held scoreless through two games and only achieved two base hits. 


    “It’s definitely not the outcome we wanted,” Cabell Midland head coach Herman Beckett said. “If anybody told me, that we would have played two games and not scored a run, I’d have said you’re crazy. In fact, I’d have bet my house we would have scored some runs. The pitching was good, the defense was good enough, we just didn’t put the bat on the ball.”


    The Patriots added another run in the fourth with an RBI single from Bryleigh Pickens. 


    The Knights went to Brendelynn Minton to start in the circle due to the WVSSAC State Tournament rule of pitchers only allowed to pitch 14 innings a day. Drea Watts pitched seven innings in the loss against Morgantown, and the Knights would have had to play a third game today if it picked up the victory.


    Beckett said that the format needs to be changed and that playing three games in a day in unrealistic in any circumstance.


    “I don’t think you can play three games in a day in the regular season,” Beckett said. “Then you get up here and you have to play three games. That’s something that going to be looked into. It’s not fair, because it put us in a position that we had to try to get it where Drea (Watts) could pitch in both games.”


    For Parkersburg South, the win proves that the underdog Patriots have a chance to run the gauntlet.


    “We got a legitimate shot,” Burch said, “If we can beat the number one, we can beat anybody. As long as we play hard and we stay together, we do the fundamentals. In football, you got the offense, defense, and special teams. In baseball, and softball, it’s pitching, it’s base running, it’s hitting, and it’s fielding. You put those four together and you’re going to win.”


    The Knights lose three key seniors with Watts who will pitch at Bowling Green University, Becca Conrad who will play shortstop at Syracuse, and Mackenzie Kessell.


    “Drea probably put records up there that will probably never be broken in the school,” Beckett said. “It’s going to say something real special. Her, Becca, and Kenzie are special people. Becca and Drea have done it for four years. Kenzie come in this year and added a bat to the team. She’s been special. Becca and Drea have a place in my heart, they absolutely do, they strap them up every day and come to play.”


    With the loss, Cabell Midland fell to 26-6. Parkersburg South improved to 21-9 and will play No. 2 University with a bid at the state title game on the line tonight. 


PARKERSBURG SOUTH 200 100 0 – 3 4 1

CABELL MIDLAND 000 000 0 – 0 1 1

Pitching: PS: Shelton, & Corbin; CB: Minton, Watts (5), & McCallister

Hitting: PS: Shelton 2-4, R, 2 RBI HR; CB: Conrad 1-3


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