Patriots' season comes to an end
Midland Trail’s stay in the state softball tournament was doomed from the start.
A disastrous first inning in the tournament’s very first game ended with the Patriots falling 19-0 to St. Marys Wedndesday at Little Creek Park in South Charleston.
The Patriots committed seven errors that led to 13 unearned runs in the opening frame.
The Blue Devils nearly batted around twice, sending 17 batters to the plate to score 14 runs overall.
In addition to eight Midland Trail errors overall, St. Marys also had 11 hits over four innings.
Midland Trail was held without a hit and managed just three baserunners off pitchers Cali Masters and Kyleigh Rupert.
Ava Giovinazzo was 3 for 3 with a homer and three runs batted in for St. Marys. Masters and Autumn Mossor also had three RBIs for the Blue Devils.
Midland Trail then met Buffalo in an elimination game and spotted the Bison 13 runs over the first four innings. The Patriots finally got some offense going from there but it was too late and they lost 13-5 to end their season.
The Patriots played a much better defensive game this time around, committing just one error. But that error came in the first inning and combined with three walks as the Bison put four runs on the board.
They extended the lead to 6-0 in the second before pulling away with a seven-run fourth. The inning was highlighted by a three-run homer by Breigh Martin and a two-run shot by Makenlee Null.
The Patriots still had not come up with a hit through eight innings of play but that changed in the fourth against Buffalo.
Doubles by Jenna Stonestreet and Madison Rader on back-to-back pitches to start the inning gave the Patriots their first two hits and their first run of the tournament. Navaeh Hall’s single to center drove in courtesy runner Charleigh Ford, and Jesse Skaggs’ single to left scored Hall to finish a four-run inning.
Staring at the mercy rule and elimination in the bottom of the fifth, the Patriots fought. Hall singled with two out, stole second and scored on a single by Raygen Parsons, but a strikeout in the next at-bat ended the game.
Midland Trail finished the season 20-9.
