Keyser, Petersburg open state tournament play today
May 22—SOUTH CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Keyser and Petersburg open their state tournament runs today at Little Creek Park.
Keyser (25-9) kicks off the Class AA tournament against Bluefield (17-5) at 9:45 a.m. Herbert Hoover (26-3) takes on Winfield (23-9) in Game 2 30 minutes after.
In the Class A field, Petersburg (25-8) faces Buffalo (18-12) 30 minutes after the conclusion of St. Marys (28-3) and Midland Trail (20-7), which begins at 9:30 a.m.
West Virginia uses a double-elimination format at the state tournament, so every team is guaranteed at least two games.
In Class AA, the Game 1 loser will take on the Game 2 loser in Game 3 on Wednesday at 4:45 p.m., and the winners of the first two games will square off 30 minutes after Game 3.
Class A will follow the same schedule, but Game 3 will begin at 4:30 p.m.
All Class A games are at Craft Field and AA games are at The Rock Field A.
The state semifinal and championship games will be played on Thursday at the same site.
Keyser is making its first state tournament appearance since 2012 after defeating Weir, 3-1, last Wednesday in the rubber match of the teams' best-of-three regional championship series.
The Golden Tornado are led in the circle by junior right-hander Rylee Mangold, who has a 14-3 win-loss record and 1.24 ERA, allowing 17 earned runs on 46 hits in 96 innings pitched with 194 strikeouts and 35 walks.
At the plate, Keyser boasts a team .373 batting average and has six hitters batting over .300 in junior Tayler Likens (.535), a Kent State commit, freshman Leighton Johnson (.452), freshman Bibs Felton (.451), Mangold (.434), freshman Brielle Root (.418) and junior Ivy Bromhal (.355).
Likens leads Keyser in home runs (16), doubles (17), RBIs (67), runs (61) and hits (53).
Isabella Smith, a Bluefield University signee, is Bluefield's ace with a 1.73 ERA and 16-5 win-loss record.
Bluefield is led at the plate by Grace Richardson, who has a .469 batting average, 35 runs scored and four home runs. Madison Lawson has 34 ribbies.
Petersburg, which finished third in the state tournament last year, is led by its lone senior in the circle Sam Colaw. The right-handed Shepherd commit has a 17-5 record on the year having allowed 41 earned runs on 137 hits in 142 innings pitched with 155 strikeouts and 34 walks.
The Vikings have a team .351 batting average led by Colaw (.500), Miley Tingler (.442), Ella Chew (.430), Shyane Tawney (.402), Addie Kitzmiller (.376), Cheyenne Sites (.316) and Blair Loy (.314).
Leading the team in RBIs are Chew (39), Colaw (36) and Tingler (34). The trio also all have eight home runs apiece, and Tingler has eight triples. Tingler's 46 runs scored tops the squad.
Statistics for Buffalo were not available online.
