The game was going swimmingly for Pendleton County, almost an apt term considering the heavy rains that drenched the state last week. Then Wheeling Central Catholic put on a storm of their own to hand Pendleton County a setback in its opening game of the West Virginia State Softball Tournament.
The weather had a bit of everything that one could expect in the Kanawha Valley in late May. Intense thunderstorms interspersed with periods of light and also soaking rains. In between, brief interludes of intense summer sun baked rainwater into humidity. For some teams, the weather served as an even bigger adversary than the competition.
Both teams pitched to a scoreless draw in the first inning, but the Wildcats opened scoring in the top of the second. Jess Parker got down quickly on no balls and two strikes, but then fouled the next pitch directly back. This generally indicates that the batter has the pitcher timed. Parker clubbed the next pitch into centerfield for a single.
A few batters later and with two outs against Pendleton County recorded, Lexi Tingler came up to bat. She also quickly found herself down no balls and two strikes, but the baserunner swiped third during the at bat. Tingler poked the ball into centerfield, but got herself caught in a rundown for the third out. Alertly, the baserunner came home and put Pendleton County up 1-0.
Susan Vincell pitched the entire game for Pendleton County. Remarkably, neither she nor her Wheeling Central Catholic counterpart walked a batter all day. The first batter of the bottom of the second barely beat a great throw from Chesnee Colaw to get to first safely, then made it to scoring position on second base on a sacrifice. Vincell struck out the next two hitters to preserve the slender lead.
Rain plagued Pendleton County batters in the top of the third, including a brief delay. The Maroon Knights set them down in order.
Molly Rowe led off in the top of the fourth. Down in the count, she tapped a slow dribbler down the first base side and legged out the throw to reach safely. Colaw followed by grounding toward second. It was fielded, but misplayed when she tried to get the lead runner at second. The resulting error put runners at second and third for Parker.
The power hitting Parker did exactly what was needed, lofting a ball high and moderately deep into left field. When caught, the lead runner tagged and scored to put the advantage at 2-0. Two batters later, Laney Bowers swung and missed at the first pitch, but reached out and smacked the second into right center, driving a third run home.
In the bottom of the fourth, Vincell fielded a hit from the first batter and dispatched the batter quickly. The second batter for Wheeling Central Catholic on the first pitch popped the ball up about 10 feet in the air and 10 feet out from the plate. It landed squarely in fair territory, then the English on the ball spun it towards foul ground. Vincell later struck that batter out.
Pendleton County settled in. The bottom of the fifth saw Vincell mow down the batters in order. The third out came on a very slow ground ball towards second that was fielded cleanly, thrown quickly, and secured the third out by seconds.
Then came the bottom of the sixth. The Wildcats secured the first two outs, then came a base hit to put one on. An error put a second on and another single brought in the first run for the Maroon Knights, who then scored three more to take a 4-3 advantage. Vincell struck out the last batter of the inning.
The Maroon Knights held on in the top of the inning to take an improbable win on a day full of similar results.
But, however, Pendleton County was about to kick off an improbable run down the long road of the losers’ bracket, working to get back to another state championship game appearance.
