Wildcats hold off Irish, advance to state tournament for 25th time
- Bill Lusk
- 7 minutes ago
- 3 min read
Bill Lusk | WVOW Sports
LOGAN Second-ranked Logan jumped on fifth-ranked Charleson Catholic early and then held off a furious rally from the Irish as the Wildcats captured the Class AA Region 4 championship with a 4-3 win Saturday evening at Roger E. Gertz Field.
Logan won the first game on Thursday, 4-0, before Charleston Catholic won 13-3 in five innings on Friday to force Saturday's winner-take-all contest with a berth in the state tournament on the line.
Charleston Catholic (21-11) was looking for its ninth straight trip to the state tournament, but in the end, it was Logan (27-4), who advanced to its 25th state tournament in school history, earning the second seed and will take on third seed Philip Barbour (22-6) on Thursday night at GoMart Park in the Class AA state baseball tournament.
The Wildcats and Colts will take the field approximately 50 minutes after the conclusion of top seed Wheeling Central (25-4) and fourth seed Wyoming East (25-7). First pitch between the two schools is set for 5 p.m.
Logan jumped out to a 4-0 lead through three innings as the Wildcats took advantage of timely hitting and Charleston Catholic miscues. For the third straight game, Logan plated a run in the first inning, however, the Wildcats looked as if they were going to plate multiple runs.
A pair of singles to center field by Talan Thompson and Ivan Miller put runners at first and third to start the first. Bentley Williamson followed with a line drive off the left ankle of Charleston Catholic starting pitcher Xander Allara that resulted in a fielder's choice when third baseman Danny Linton fielded and threw home to retire Thompson for the first out.
Allara was unable to continue and was relieved by Luke Blaydes, who gave up a sacrifice fly to Jayce Wolfe, which brought in Miller for a 1-0 Logan lead. Blaydes gave up a two-out single to Tanner Akers but got Luke Blankenship to strike out.
Logan plated three runs in the second inning taking advantage of walks and an error to jump out to a 4-0 lead. Landon Hall drew a leadoff walk, moved to second base on a Gage Hensley sacrifice bunt and advanced to third on a passed ball.
McCormick Ilderton followed with a walk and stole second base ahead of catcher Zaden Ranson's throw, which went into center field allowing Hall to score and advance Ilderton to third base with one out.
Thompson walked and came around to score on Miller's two-run single giving the Wildcats a 4-0 lead.
With two outs, Wolfe singled to center as Miller rounded third and headed home, but center fielder Jaxon Kimble threw Miller out at the plate for the final out of the second.
The Irish got on the board in the fourth inning when Thomas Ryan singled to plate Kimble and cut the Wildcats lead to 4-1.
Connor Jarvis led off the fifth inning with a triple off the left field wall and scored on Jonah DiCocco's sacrifice fly to trim the gap to 4-2. Ranson tripled and scored on a passed ball to bring the Irish to within one run, 4-3, after five innings.
Blankenship went the first 4 1/3 inning allowing two runs on six hits with four strikeouts to pick up the win. Cross Conn worked the final 2 2/3 innings allowing one run on one hit with two strikeouts and two walks to earn the save.
Allara was saddled with the loss after allowing one run on two hits in 1/3 inning. Blaydes tossed 5 2/3 innings of relief and allowed three runs on five hits, walked five and struck out three.
Ryan had two hits and one RBI, DiCocco one hit and one RBI and Blaydes, Noah Bollinger, Jarvis, Kimble and Ranson each had one hit for Charleston Catholic.
Miller had two hits and two RBIs, Wolfe added a hit and drove in one, Thompson had two hits and Hall one hit for Logan.