PHOTO | Boothe Davis: Captured by the Moment Photography
Bill Lusk | WVOW Sports
LOGAN Logan took advantage of three Sissonville throwing errors plating three unearned runs in a 4-1 victory Thursday evening over the Indians in game three of the Class AA Region 4 championship at Roger E. Gertz Field.
With Konner Lowe pitching well and breaks going their way, Logan was able to rally from a one-game deficit for the second consecutive year to advance to the next weeks state tournament at Appalachian Power Park.
Last year, the Wildcats lost game one of the best of three regional series to Point Pleasant; however, Logan rebounded to win the next two on its way to the Class AA championship.
Sissonville defeated Logan, 3-2, Tuesday night before the Wildcats rebounded to defeat the Indians, 10-2, Wednesday night to force Thursday’s decisive third game.
Lowe earned the win after allowing one unearned run and four hits in 5 1/3 innings. He struck out nine and walked two. Chad Burnette struck out two and walked one in 1 2/3 innings to record his first save of the season.
Isaiah Ramsey tossed six innings, scattering five hits and allowed four unearned runs. He hit three batters and struck out four in the loss for Sissonville.
Logan got on the board in the second inning as Lowe singled to left to start the second. Conner Mullins, serving as courtesy runner for Lowe, stole second and scored on second basemen Stevie Loftis’ throwing error giving the Wildcats a 1-0 lead.
Sissonville threatened in the third and fourth innings putting two runners on base in each innings; however, Lowe got out of each jam to keep it 1-0.
Ramsey and Loftis had back-to-back two out singles, but Lowe got Eli Simonton, Sissonville’s RBI leader, to fly out to right fielder Korbin Bostic to end the third.
Collin Cottrell walked, and Tristen Portz singled with two outs in the fourth, but once again Lowe got out of the inning striking out Jacob Coleman.
Just like they did in the fifth inning of Wednesday’s victory, Logan put pressure on the Sissonville defense by playing small ball to take advantage of three Indian errors.
Carson Kirk started the inning by reaching on a Cottrell error. Kirk stole second and came around to score Ramsey’s throwing error off a Bostic bunt to make it 2-0.
Bostic moved up to second on the same throwing error. Dawson Maynard laid down a sacrifice that third basemen Colton Carpenter fielded but threw away allowing Bostic to score to give Logan a 3-0 lead.
Jake Ramey singled to score Maynard giving Logan a 4-0 lead after five innings.
Sissonville got on the board in the sixth inning when Simonton scored on a Cole Blankenship fielding error to cut Logan’s lead to 4-1 after six innings.
Loftis, Portz, Ramsey and Simonton each had one hit for Sissonville.
Ramey had two hits and one RBI for Logan while Kirk and Lowe each had one hit.
Sissonville, who was looking to make the state tournament for the first time since 2010, finishes with a record of 22-10.
With the win Logan improves to 26-8 and joins Region 1 champion Fairmont Senior and Region 2 champion Robert C. Byrd in the state tournament.
Bluefield and Shady Spring will meet in a decisive third game to determine the Region 3 champion and final qualifier in the Class AA state tournament.
The tournament is slated to begin at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday with the top seed meeting the fourth seed followed by the second and third seeded teams meeting 45 minutes after the completion of game one.
Logan could very well be the top seed in next week’s tournament. Fairmont Senior is making its first trip since 2014 while Robert C. Byrd will be making its first ever appearance in the state tournament.