New Richmond – A duel of aces would be lost by whoever folded first.
Wyoming East ultimately won that battle.
Behind a complete game, two-hit shutout from all-state junior Jaeden Lester, Wyoming East upended regional foe James Monroe 3-0 Friday in New Richmond.
Opposing Lester was WVU commit and fellow all-state junior Kadyn Hines and until he hit his pitch limit with two outs in the bottom of the sixth, the two teams were locked in a scoreless tie. But East’s patient approach at the plate allowed it to hold out until Hines was removed, allowing the Warriors to score the tying immediately after his exit.
“We preached the whole game – we had guys getting up there over-swinging,” East head coach Kevin Hedinger said. “I said, ‘You can’t over-swing at 92-93-94-(miles per hour). You’ve just got to kind of shorten up and hope you make hard contact at somebody.’ We had a couple chances, I was just hoping for one in a gap somewhere.
“I’m proud of Jake Stewart too. We DH’d for him. He’s a competitor, he didn’t like it. We thought the other kid was swinging the bat really well and it was best for the team and he said, ‘Okay coach.’ We stuck him in there and he drew a walk and got a big hit there at the end of the game so we’re super proud of him.”
While Hines threw 110 pitches (56 for strikes) and exited early, Lester had one of the most efferent outings of his career. The southpaw threw 69 strikes on 90 pitches, fanning 12. During his breakout season in 2025 his gaudy strikeout numbers and high pitch counts forced him out of games but there was no risk of that Friday.
“It was just practice,” Lester said. “I try to get in the bullpen and throw strikes. The first-pitch strike was the main thing in this game.”
“That’s the first thing I said to him but that’s probably the best he’s had since he’s been here,” Hedinger said. “A lot of times – I can’t think of many times he’s gone seven innings and lasted the whole game. We still had maybe n inning to go if we didn’t score. Very proud of him.”
The inability to stay ahead in the count or string together hits against Lester was a constant for the Mavericks Friday.
“We’ve got to do a better job of out-working pitchers and working the count a little bit and getting the count in our favor,” James Monroe head coach Tom Gardinier said. “I’m not going to knock him at all because he’s a dang good pitcher. This in all honesty was probably two of the best pitchers in West Virginia, especially at the double-A level. There’s probably some bigger ones and better ones but going toe-to-toe right here, this is big-time baseball.”
East threatened to score once before actually doing so, getting a pair of runners in scoring position in the fifth but the future Mountaineer dialed up the heat for an inning-ending strikeout. It proved to foreshadow the following inning.
When Hines exited eventually exited in the sixth, he left a pair of runners on in scoring position – one via a single and another via walk. He fanned his 12th and final batter of the evening before giving way to Bodie Zickefoose.
The Mavericks chose to intentionally walk Phillips to get to No. 7 hitter Owen Biggs who answered the bell. A hard grounder to third off the bat of Biggs was mishandled, allowing everyone to reach safety and the go-ahead run to score. Stewart’s single scored Braxton Morgan before Cruze Cooper added the third and final run of the night with an RBI single.
A throw to the plate beat Biggs, ending the inning but the 3-0 lead proved insurmountable with Lester on the bump.
“That was big,” Hedinger said. “We have a couple kids sometimes, their confidence gets down. Baseball’s crazy, Every pitch it seems like somebody’s up, somebody’s down. Bot (Biggs) got a couple hits the other night, legged a couple doubles out. They weren’t smoked but he got out of the box a they were doubles. I’ve got confidence in all these kids.”
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