Mattney's five-hitter puts Oak Glen in Class AA driver's seat, 3-0

Logan's Ashlin Brumfield tries to pump up her teammates after recording one of her two hits Wednesday evening during the Lady Wildcats 3-0 loss to Oak Glen in the Class AA softball state tournament (Photo by Teran Malone)

Bill Lusk | WVOW Sports

CHARLESTON   Mattie Carney’s five hit shutout led fifth-ranked Oak Glen to a 3-0 win over top-ranked Logan on Wednesday evening in the Class AA softball state tournament at The Rock at Little Creek Park.

The win sends Oak Glen (29-10) to Thursday’s Class AA championship at 2:30 p.m., where the Golden Bears will only have to win one game to win their first state championship since 1998 and second in school history.

The Golden Bears will play the winner of Thursday morning’s elimination contest between Petersburg and Logan.

Carney struck out eight and walked one in seven innings. She pitched the Golden Bears to the winners’ bracket finals with a 1-0 win over Petersburg.

Logan outhit Oak Glen, 5-4, but couldn’t string together enough hits to mount a rally.

“They played good and she is good, but an error over here and a passed ball beat us,” Logan coach Levi Curry said. “I don’t feel like they beat us, I feel like we beat ourselves, and I truly believe that especially with us outhitting them even though we only had five hits.”

Oak Glen plated two runs in the first inning when Kayla Wright singled off the glove of left fielder Melody Rozzell scoring Riley Bruce and Addie Smith.

In the third, Carney tripled and scored on a passed ball for a 3-0 lead, which was more than enough support for her in the circle.

Logan’s best scoring chance came in the sixth inning when Ashlin Brumfield and Lauren Adkins singled with one out, but Carney got Addison Richardson to fly out and Emilee Mullins to ground out to end the threat.

“I felt like when we played them early in the year, we did the same thing,” Curry said. “We adjusted about the fourth inning, and it seemed like we didn’t adjust this game, we just leave it up to chance a lot.”

Wright was 1-for-2 with two RBIs and Bruce, Carney and Smith each went 1-for-3 and each scored one run for the Golden Bears.

Logan (23-7) will have to climb out of the losers’ bracket, if they are to compete and win a state championship, starting with Thursday morning’s matchup with eighth-ranked Petersburg (21-11).

“It just made the roader harder, that is all we have done,” Curry said. “We will get back in the morning, take Petersburg on, and see what we can do with them.”