Wildcats sweep season series from Hillbillies, secure 20th win

Bill Lusk | WVOW Sports

MAN Class AA No. 2 Logan swept the regular season two-game series against county rival Man, defeating the Hillbillies 6-2 Wednesday night at William "Tootie" Carter Field.

Logan, who has won 18 of its last 19 games, picked up its 20th win of the season to improve to 20-2 on the season and 4-0 against Logan County schools, having swept Chapmanville and Man this season.

Man falls to 12-8 and has lost six of its last eight games.

Ivan Miller allowed one run on two hits with nine strikeouts and one walk in five innings and drove in one run for the Wildcats.

Braxton Messer suffered the loss after allowing five runs - two earned - on four hits with 10 strikeouts and three walks in 5 2/3 innings for Man, who outhit Logan 6-4, but committed four errors leading to three unearned runs.

The Hillbillies committed two errors in the top of the first inning leading to two unearned runs as Luke Blankenship had a two-run single to score Gabe Goldie and Bentley Williamson to give the Wildcats a 2-0 lead.

Logan added to its lead with two runs in the third inning as Jayce Wolfe stole home as part of a double steal to make it 3-0 and Tanner Akers scored on Landon Hall's single for a 4-0 lead.

Man got on the board in the third when Messer single to drive in Noah Fraizer and cut the Hillbillies deficit to 4-1.

Miller's RBI groundout scored courtesy runner Grayson Sanders to make it 5-1 in the fourth and a bases loaded walk to Hall increased the lead to 6-1 in the seventh.

Man loaded the bases in the bottom of the seventh and pushed across a run when Messer was hit by a pitch to plate Braxton Sword with the Hillbillies second run.

Blankenship and Hall each had one hit and each drove in a pair of runs while Akers and Wolfe each had one hit and Miller one RBI for the Wildcats.

Man got one hit and two RBIs from Messer and one hit each from Landon Cantrell, Gavyn Cline, Cam Gerace and Sword. Cline's hit was a double.

Logan closes the regular season with a home game Friday evening against Nitro at 6 p.m. while Man hosts Lincoln County at 6:30 p.m. Friday.