St. Marys head coach Lacy Riggs high-fives Breanna Value after Value scores the primary run in Blue Devils’ 6-0 win over Petersburg Thursday in a W.Va. Class A state event elimination recreation in South Charleston, W.Va.
(Picture by Kerry Patrick)

SOUTH CHARLESTON, W.Va. — St. Marys junior Breanna Value is reaping the advantages of prior expertise on the state degree in each women basketball and softball.

Friday morning in an elimination recreation on the Class A state softball event, Value ignited the Blue Satan offense with the workforce’s first hit and first run in a 6-0 win over a Petersburg outfit which defeated St. Marys twice throughout final yr’s state event.

Value additionally began for the St. Marys women basketball workforce making a repeat look on the state event earlier than Petersburg because the sixth seed knocked out the Blue Devils within the opening spherical.

St. Marys (30-5) superior to the championship stage scheduled for later within the afternoon needing to win twice in opposition to Wahama, which was 30-5 previous to the matchup.

“Beating Petersburg is one thing we’re very pleased with,” Value mentioned. “We knew we needed to are available and hit. All of us have been very pumped up and that helped us keep within the recreation. Awe put the bat on the ball and good issues occurred.”

Seven of St. Marys’ beginning 9 contributed at the least one hit to the nine-hit assault, together with two apiece from Value out of the No. 7 gap adopted by Autumn Mossor within the eighth spot.

Mossor, the daughter of St. Marys coach Lacy Riggs, performed her first recreation within the state event. Each Mossor and Value every drove in a single run. Additionally within the decrease half of the order, Baylee McGrady tripled house two runs in a four-run fifth inning which accomplished the scoring for the Blue Devils.

Value, who batted lead-off for a majority of the season, was bumped down the lineup as a way of kick-starting a St. Marys assault which went chilly within the latter a part of the season main as much as this week’s till the state event.

“Our bats, we’ve been fairly sizzling so long as we maintain them rolling,” Riggs mentioned. “We’ve made a few modifications. Autumn didn’t have an at-bat this event. The children are adjusting, doing what they’re speculated to do and pulling by.

“With women like Breanna, that offers us a flexible batter towards the underside of the order. We’re capable of make higher use of her expertise down there.”

Value additionally was on the receiving finish of a Petersburg baserunner caught stealing at second base.

“Myself, I’ve been going into the batter’s field considering leap on the primary pitch,” Value mentioned. “Get a great hit on one you may deal with and despatched it.

“This yr we haven’t had the nerves. Final yr, we didn’t know what to anticipate.”

Cali Masters earned the win after throwing six innings of shutout ball with three hits allowed and 10 strikeouts. She struck out 9 Vikings within the first 4 innings.

“Sure, we saved an inning and Ella got here off the bench and was additionally stellar on the market,” Riggs mentioned. “That’s known as teamwork.”

Coach Riggs saved an inning for Masters in case St. Marys compelled a second recreation in opposition to Wahama. Fellow southpaw Ella Smith, the lone senior on the Blue Satan roster, wanted simply 12 pitches to strike out the aspect so as within the high of the seventh inning.

Taking the loss for Petersburg was junior Sammy Colaw, who walked two and struck out seven. The Vikings shut out the season at 26-10 after enjoying by a continuous schedule with solely 10 gamers in uniform.

“Truthfully, I’m so grateful for an excellent yr,” Petersburg coach Bubba Hedrick mentioned. “I really feel blessed that we obtained right here. We knew we have been very quick in numbers and really younger. We actually scraped to get 10 youngsters this yr. It was simply an odd yr for us.

“We knew something we obtained right here was a cherry on high. We really performed a few video games this yr once we solely had 9. We have been nervous your entire yr, however we obtained plenty of mileage. We performed plenty of video games.”

Petersburg, which was held shutout for the ultimate 12 innings of the event, graduates one senior in catcher Braylee Corbin.

“We sort of rode Colaw and Corbin all yr,” Hedrick mentioned. “They carried us lots.”

Contact Kerry Patrick at kpatrick@newsandsentinel.com

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