Chapmanville's Braylon Moore delivers a pitch to the plate during the first inning of the Tigers game with Logan on April 26 at Ted Ellis Field (File photo courtesy of Boothe Davis/Captured by the Moment Photography).
Bill Lusk | WVOW Sports
CHAPMANVILLE Top-seeded Chapmanville survived a scare in its Class AA Region 4 Section 2 tournament opener Tuesday night as Brody Dalton broke a 5-5 tie with a two-run triple sparking a four-run sixth inning rally to defeat fourth seeded Wayne, 9-5, at Ted Ellis Field.
Dalton’s triple to right was his only hit of the night, came on a 3-0 pitch off Wayne starting pitcher Riley Brown, and Chapmanville its first lead since leading 4-2 in the second inning.
Jacob Topping scored on a wild pitch and Trey Butcher had a run-scoring double in the four-run rally and Braylon Moore retired the Pioneers in order in the seventh to send the Tigers to Thursday’s winners’ bracket against county rival and second seeded Logan.
Chapmanville (24-4), ranked first in the West Virginia MetroNews Class AA Power Poll, and Logan (19-8), who is ranked second in the same poll, split a pair of games during the season with each team winning on the opponent’s home field.
Wayne (16-14) will travel to Scott Thursday in an elimination game. The winner of that game will travel to the loser of Thursday’s Chapmanville and Logan game.
Trailing by one run, the Tigers came back and tied the game in the bottom of the fourth inning on Talan Thompson’s RBI double allowing Eli Messer to score.
Fisher Fry had a two-run single in the first inning to put the Pioneers on top 2-0 before Chapmanville answered with two runs of its own in the bottom of the first to tie the game at 2 on Butcher’s single and Andrew Farley’s run scoring double.
Moore scored on a wild pitch and Luke Knight’s RBI ground out gave Chapmanville a 4-2 lead after two innings.
The Pioneers never went away, scoring three runs in the fourth inning to take a 5-4 lead, chasing starting pitcher Joey Canterbury from the game.
Levi Cassidy’s RBI single cut the deficit to 4-3 and Levi Queen scored on an error to tie it at 4. The Pioneers took the lead, 5-4, on Brayden Jackson’s single scoring Cassidy.
Moore entered the game with two outs in the fourth inning, replacing Canterbury, and was strong on the mound for the Tigers as he struck out Fry to end the fourth. The right-hander struck out one batter and allowed no runs and no hits in 3 1/3 innings to earn the win.
Canterbury allowed five runs – two earned – on seven hits while walking two and striking out one in 3 2/3 innings of work.
Brown took the loss after giving up nine runs on nine hits and four strikeouts while walking two in 5 2/3 innings. Parker Adkins allowed one hit and struck out one in 1/3 inning.
Fry had two hits and two RBIs while Cassidy had one hit and scored two runs for the Pioneers. Brady Dyer, Braxton Marcum and Logan Prater each had one hit.
Butcher finished with two hits, a double and two RBIs and Dalton had a triple and two RBIs for Chapmanville. Thompson had two hits, two runs, a double and one RBI and Farley had a double and one RBI.
Moore had two hits and Eli Surgoine and Topping each had one hit for the Tigers.