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Golden Bears take sectional title

NEW MANCHESTER, W.Va. – The Oak Glen baseball team won it’s fourth straight sectional title Wednesday with a 11-1 six-inning win over Weir High in the Region 1, Section 1 state tournament.

Weir won Monday’s series opener, 10-1. The Bears rebounded with a 14-9 win on Tuesday. With the convincing win over county rival Weir, the Bears will hit the road Monday traveling to Ravenswood for a shot at the Region No. 1 title.

Senior Golden Bear Bub Haddox overpowered the Red Rider hitters not allowing a hit until the fourth inning. Haddox fanned nine, giving up just four hits in six innings on the mound. The Bears scored four runs in their half of the first. Alex Shuman drew a lead off walk and advanced to third on Kyle Woodruff’s single. Bub Haddox lifted a sacrifice fly to left scoring Shuman. Alec Swiger reached on a fielder’s choice and Micheal Campbell drew another free pass before freshmen Noah Feicht lined a single that scored Swiger. Campbell and Feicht would both score on errors giving the Bears an early lead.

The Bears added four more runs in the second when Jacob Ford reached on a error and Shuman drew another walk. Woodruff lined a shot into centerfield for his second hit that scored Ford. Haddox followed with a double to right center that plated a run. Campbell followed with a two-run single.

Weirton put its lone run on the board in the fourth inning when senior Mitch Viakley singled and stole second. Will Larch drove in Viakley with a single to left. Jacob Rosnick singled to right moving Larch to third. But Haddox shut the door striking out the next two Rider batters on eight pitches. Larch had two of the four Weirtons hits, collecting a double in the sixth.

Oak Glen added two more runs in fifth sparked by Zach O’Brien’s one out double that gave the Bears a nine-run lead. When the Bears came to bat in the bottom half of the sixth they needed just one run to end the contest early. As fate would have it, Haddox led off the inning. The Golden Bear standout took ball one then promptly sent the second pitch over the right center fence for a walk off homer.

” I think Monday was a wake up call,” Golden Bear coach Mat Deveaney said. “We didn’t play well Monday, Tuesday we played a little better and tonight we came ready to play. We had the advantage pitching for the third game and we came to play. We had a confidence boost after game 2 with our bats and the guys seemed focused.

“It’s one game at a time now, I don’t know to much about Ravenswood. I hear they hit well and have some strong arms but its do or die time now and we’ll see how we stack up.”

For first-year Red Rider coach Jason Angle, a former Oak Glen baseballer, the Riders ended on a good note.

“We’ve had a tough season and seeing these guys come together and play some good baseball here at the end is encouraging. They really showed some guts, we’re very young with just a few seniors. Those seniors showed the younger guys what it means to be leaders, they’ve set good examples. I’m very proud of all of them.”

W: 0-0-0-1-0-0-1-4-2

OG: 4-4-0-0-2-1-11-8-1

OG-Bub Haddox, wp (6 IP, 4 H, 1R, 9K, 1BB) and Patrick Reardon.

W-Larch, (1IP, 2H, 4R, 0K, 4BB), Curtis (3 IP, 5H, 4R, 1K, 1BB), Mills (2IP, 2H, 2R) and McCartney, Mills.

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