Bill Lusk | WVOW Sports
CHAPMANVILLE Fourth seed Wayne plated two runs in the fourth inning to break a 2-2 tie and held off Chapmanville to defeat the second-seeded Tigers 7-5 Thursday evening in the Class AA Region 4 Section 2 tournament at Ted Ellis Field.
Logan Prater singled with one out in the top of the fourth to score Luke Cassidy and Ike Chinn added a two-out double as the Pioneers improved to 13-14 and advance to face third seed Scott Friday in an elimination game to determine who will face AA No. 2 and top seed Logan for the Class AA Region 4 Section 2 championship Saturday afternoon at Roger E. Gertz.
Chapmanville, who had high hopes entering postseason play, saw their season come to an end at 18-10. The Tigers came into tournament action riding a five-game winning streak, but dropped its sectional opener to third seed Scott, 9-6, in nine innings Tuesday before rebounding to defeat Mingo Central, 12-2, in an elimination game on Wednesday.
The Tigers closed the gap to 4-3 in the bottom of the fourth when Jacob Topping singled to center to plate Will Kirkendall.
Wayne added a run in the top of the fifth on Parker Adkins scored on a wild pitch, but once more Chapmanville plated a run in the bottom of the fifth to pull within one run, 5-4, on a run-scoring double from Kirkendall.
Just as they had the two previous innings, Wayne responded right back with two more runs in the sixth to take a 7-4 as Chinn drove in a run with a groundout and Brayden Jackson reached on an error allowing Peyton Davis to score from third.
The Tigers would plate a run in the bottom of the seventh when Talan Thompson tripled to leadoff the seventh and scored on Brody Dalton’s double to close the gap to 7-5.
It would appear that Chapmanville had the momentum; however, Wayne quickly seized the momentum as Cassidy picked off Dalton at second base for the first out and got Tyson Thompson to ground out and Even Plumley for the final out.
Chapmanville fell behind early as the Pioneers plated two runs in the second inning and fell behind 2-0 as Brayden Marcum was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded and Cassidy drove in a run with a sacrifice fly.
The Tigers cut the deficit to 2-1 in the bottom of the second on a run-scoring double from Andrew Farley and tied the contest at 2-all in the third when Tyson Thompson reached base safely on an error allowing Brody Dalton to score the tying run.
Four of Wayne’s nine hits were doubles. Chinn was 2-for-4 with two RBIs while Pratter went 2-for-3 with two runs scored and one RBI and Levi Queen was 2-for-4 at the plate for the Pioneers.
Cassidy had one hit and one RBI while Adkins had one hit and scored two runs for Wayne, who also got one hit from Davis and an RBI from Marcum.
Cassidy pitched seven innings, allowing five runs on 10 hits with seven strikeouts and only one walk to earn the win for Wayne.
Kirkendall stared on the mound for Chapmanville and suffered the loss after allowing four runs, only two earned, in 3 2/3 innings. Kirkendall allowed seven hits, struck out two, walked one and hit two batters.
Farley pitched 1 2/3 innings of relief allowing three runs on two hits. He struck out one, walked one and hit one. Topping struck out three in 1 2/3 innings of hitless relief.
Kirkendall had two hits, one of which a double and drove in two runs while Talan Thompson and Plumley each had two hits. Thompson tripled and Plumley had a double for Chapmanville.
The Tigers got a hit and two RBIs from Tyson Thompson and one hit and one RBI each from Dalton, Farley and Topping.