Ansted – The last three matchups between Midland Trail and Greenbrier West were decided by four total runs, thus the bar for a classic in the series is high.
Wednesday’s finish was good enough to make the cut.
Trail catcher Jesse Skaggs skipped a two-out single into the hole at shortstop, beating the throw to first as the Patriots secured a 3-2 walk-off win over the Cavaliers in Ansted.
For West it’s the second walk-off loss in as many days after suffering the same fate on Tuesday at PikeView.
“We’ve still got to execute,” West head coach Stephen Price said. “I think we were 0-for-4 on bunts. What’d they do? They put the bunts down and went second to home on a bunt. Until we learn to do that, we’re going to lose these tight ones. Against good ball clubs you’ve got to execute and we didn’t execute.”
Execution was the name of the game for Trail which saw Maddie Rader and Nevaeh Hall reach on one-out singles in the eighth ahead of No. 3 hitter Jessi Mooney. Mooney was intentionally walked, a strategy that almost paid off when West pitcher Brilee Redden induced a pop-out. But Skaggs played spoiler with her hit that scored Rader’s courtesy runner, C.J. Ford.
“I knew (Redden) pitched inside-outside, not down the middle,” Skaggs said. “When I went up, I crowded in case it went out but I hit that one way inside off the inside of my bat. I knew where she was going to go with it.”
Trail’s comeback was largely fueled by Cavalier miscues as Redden carried a no-hitter into the seventh inning, yet the game was still tied 2-2.
West did execute and take advantage of opportunities early, though. A Preslee Treadway bunt attempt in the second inning was called foul, forcing her to swing the bat. That she did, going over the fence with a two-run homer for West’s only runs of the game.
Trail, which struggled to put runners on base against Redden, caught a break in the fourth inning when Nevaeh Hall reached on a leadoff error. Mooney worked a walk behind her before Presley Walker’s bunt plated Hall. Skaggs followed with an RBI fielder’s choice to score Mooney knotting the game.
But the bats were still largely silent from there with Trail finally snapping the no-hit bid on a Campbell blooper in the bottom of the seventh. It amounted to nothing though as West catcher Brooklyn Adkins gunned the runner down at second.
The Cavaliers applied pressure in the top of the eighth when Redden and Treadway reached via a walk and single, respectively, both advancing to scoring position. But a Rader strikeout ended the threat, setting the stage for Skaggs’ heroics.
“We were looking at where we were at in the lineup,” Trail head coach Candace Young said. “We debated pulling Maddie. We have (Steph) Harrell who’s back for us but when Maddie gets in that groove it’s like I don’t want to take her out of that because some games the longer she throws, the better she gets and she was grooving. She’s going to do the job and I know she can so we just went with it and they were big outs.”
For Trail the win was a continuation of a now four-game winning streak over West, dating back to last season.
“If there’s any rivalry we have left, and I’ve said high school rivalries have left since social media, but if there’s any there’s still one here in softball between Trail and West,” Price said. “Right now they’ve held the upper-hand the last two years. A lot of our parents and their parents work together. We’ve knocked each other out of the section the last couple of years. We’re not in the same class, but it’s fun. I’d just like to come out on the other end one time.”
“It dates back 20 years,” Young said. “(West assistant coach) Heather (Boyce) and I have played each other in high school through college and I don’t think we’ve ever played a game against one another that wasn’t like that. Even in college we would go eight innings and walk-off type style. I don’t know what it is with us but if you missed this game you missed a good one.”
Skaggs led Trail with a pair of RBI while Rader fanned 11 in a compete-game effort. Redden and Adkins notched two hits each to lead West while Treadway had both RBI. Redden struck out 10 and allowed just one earned run in the loss.
