Rain Won't Go Away

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Sports fans, it's time for the Friday Free for All.
Over the next two hours, we'll bring you all the
latest from across the region in high school and college sports.
Now Here are your hosts, Chris Johnson and Alex Wheederspield.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Good morning everybody, and welcome in.

Speaker 3 (00:22):
Thanks for being here.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
This is the Friday Free for All, brought to you
by Dan Cavazio to you a GMC. Alex Reiderspiel here
with you. Chris Johnson gonna join us a little bit
later this morning, Chris George. I can't even make this joke.
It doesn't even work, but I was gonna say, Chris George,
the Manson nice is joining us twice for real. We're
gonna do two separate segments with Chris George and Chris
Johnson's gonna be the sandwich.

Speaker 4 (00:44):
In the middle of that.

Speaker 2 (00:45):
So we're gonna talk all sorts of things. Greg Kry
gonna join us to talk a little bit about the
state high school softball tournament. We're gonna talk with Chris
George about Mountaineer base balls. Get some pirates talk in there.
We are, of course going to break down everything going
on with Bridge and around all of the regions with
relevant north central West Virginia teams through the four classifications

(01:07):
with Chris, and then when Chris Johnson is going to
join us in I don't know about forty ish minutes
or so, should be around seven forty five, give or take,
but Chris Johnson's gonna join us seven forty five, seven
to fiftyish in that range. We're gonna break down a
whole bunch of things. We'll talk a little bit of Bridgeport,
but we're also gonna take a look at kind of
the year in review, because if you can believe it,

(01:27):
the kids are out of school. That's kind of the
craziest part. School is out for the summer, for the summer.
I don't know if that's true actually everywhere, because some
areas were not granted waivers for all the school days
they lost due to the wild amount of snow and
ice and frigid temperatures that we got in the month
of January. So I'm not one hundred percent sure on that,

(01:50):
but I know graduations have been going It's basically graduation month,
graduation season that's been going on, and congratulations to all
the young kids out there. I'm not gonna reveal my
I'm not gonna reveal mine, but I will say this.
The weirdest part of the age I'm currently at now,
and this became true last year, is that I'm now

(02:14):
I've now spent more time of my life out of
high school, out of public school, out of the school system.
This doesn't make any sense. Basically, what I'm saying is,
you know, I was seventeen eighteen when I graduated, and
I'm gonna be thirty six, and that's weird. It's real
weird be thirty six here in two weeks, basically less

(02:38):
than two weeks, I'm gonna be thirty six. And that
is very strange to me to realize that all that
time you've spent away because you build up your life
in public school so much and everything seems so important
over the course of those eighteen years, and then you
leave and then all of a sudden, you're thirty six,
and so I've spent more time, or just as much

(03:00):
time of my life not being a child. I've spent
as much time being an adult. On that note, or
I guess getting away from that note, we are gonna
jump into some high school sports talk. Chris George is
gonna join us right off the bat on the other
side of this first break, and we're gonna break down
everything going on with the Bridgeport Indians. We're also gonna

(03:22):
go through every series that we've got so far, so
stick around. We'll have a moment coming up here where
we will jump into that where we will break down
everything going on in softball and baseball and go through
every single game so far. But Chris George coming up next,
we'll go ahead and hit that first break.

Speaker 4 (03:42):
Now.

Speaker 2 (03:42):
This is the Friday Free for All brought to you
by Dan Cava Toyota Buick GMC. We've got all sorts
of analysis coming your way next because Bridgeport is going
to have to do it the hard way, losing Game
one at home and now quick turnaround Game two coming
up this morning and they have to do it on
the road. We're back after this with the full breakdown.

Speaker 1 (04:01):
Time for more high school sports talk on the Dan
Cavatoyota w A GMC Friday Free for All.

Speaker 2 (04:09):
Friday Free for All kicking off, or i should say
leading off this time of year, leading off with our
buddy Chris George, played by play Voys for the Bridgeport
Indians and are all around Baseball analyst for the Friday
Free for All Chris good One. Yesterday six to five
loss for Bridgeport in Game one at home, and now
they're gonna have to do this the hard way.

Speaker 4 (04:30):
They've got to go.

Speaker 2 (04:30):
On the road, quick turnaround to try and beat the
weather because the rain unfortunately continuing to impact this week
and has been impacting all week. We thought we were
gonna have a completed series at this point. We're still
trying to just get Game two in, but the weather
has been an issue there. They're gonna have to do
this the hard way.

Speaker 4 (04:48):
It's been a.

Speaker 2 (04:49):
Weird week and ultimately the Indians don't get the job
done in Game one finally, after two days delayed by
inclement weather. I guess give me your takeaway on Indians
team now that their season has been pushed to the brink.

Speaker 3 (05:05):
Well, I mean, I said going into the broadcast that
Bridgeport had to play a clean game, no mistakes, mental
or physical, and they did that when they beat Frankfurt
Battery in the McDonald's Classics second week of April five
to two. The clean game, timely hits, no errors, no
mental mistake, and they almost made that happen last night.

(05:27):
But a third inning blunder on the base back. Two
of them really hurt Bridgeport scoreless game bon the third inning,
one out, Michael Romano doubles the deep left field. He
missed his first base. Apparently we were watching him, but
there was no argument. In fact, some other people in
the press box witnessed it and they assumed he did too.

(05:50):
Entire Frankfurt thug out noted it. And in the regionals
you have a four man umpiring crew, so you got
a guy at the play obviously calling balls and strikes.
You got a guy at first, second, third, so their
job is to watch the basis and man crew they're
looking for things like that more than ever because two
man crew you got different responsibilities when you're in rotation

(06:11):
with guys on base. And so for Frankfurt appealed, Romano
was out. So that's out number two. Next batter up,
Luke Roy doubled left center. What it drove in the
run and then after that Bond Roig was erased on

(06:31):
the play. I don't remember what happened, you know, in
that situation, but case and Bond was at second base
and he got may have been Rory. I can't remember
royg or Bond, one of the two with two outs,
got caught leaning off second and Lancefordorf, the fine picture

(06:52):
for Frankfurt, picked him off and that was the final ally,
ending with with Carson Curry at to play and he's
your tierating. Curry had a hitters count in his favor,
so it could have been another run there, and then
Frankfurt took the lead with four runs in the fifth
a couple x base hits there. Jackson Hair had a

(07:13):
big double in the inning. Jacob Nehing had a big
double in an RBI as well, and then they went
up four to nothing. Bridgeport was able to tie it
in the sixth. Third time round against lancen Orndorf and
Luke roriy Left got on base. Carson Curry had a
big RBI double to right field, and then Jacob Baccus

(07:38):
drove into with a two run home run to deep
left field, second of the year, to tie the game
at four. But fourth time round against Jacob Stravacas in
the top of the seventh. For this Frankfurt the top order,
which you know, h Jacobson Thing or two or two
of the best hitters in the state in any class.
I got to see him last Immer up close and

(07:58):
personal and Legion Baseball I saw it then and they
helped leave Frankfurt to the state championship a year ago
then in Class Double A, and these two kids didn't
disappoint again. And Jackson Hare also stepped up and had
a huge nine hair three for three with three RBIs
and another extra base hit in the inning, and Riah
Cutter ended up with the game winning RBI to give

(08:18):
him the next four lead, and then Bridgeport was able
to answer for running the bottom sixth inning, and then
they had two runners on two outs and Owen Shaun
record truck out in the game. So it forces a
game two Winter Game, Winter season go home game for Bridgeport,
the small eleven AM up at Frankfort High School and
originally they're trying to beat the rain, and uh, it's

(08:40):
gonna be tough. Frankfurt's tough on their home field. But
you know reports the experienced team, they're they're they're they're resilient. Uh,
these kids are are going to battle and it should
be an interesting game. I think the one thing Bridgeport
has in their favor, Alex is that this game at
eleven am, not six or seven. I don't know what
the craft will be like different atmosphere or different routine.

(09:02):
Maybe the home team will stumble a little bit here.
We'll see.

Speaker 2 (09:07):
That was kind of what I'm curious about. How do
you think that impacts. That's a very very quick turnaround,
as we're aware to go from from this game that
wrapped up Thursday night to playing eleven am and the
more assuming that this game starts on time. Uh, I'm
curious in your take on how does that impact pitchers,

(09:27):
guys in the bullpen. Has that impact the hitters? What's
the mindset they're going into this? Is that the very
short amount of time.

Speaker 3 (09:34):
I think I think it's I think it favors Bridge Ford.
I know and many times in the past when when
we've played games in the summer, we lost the night before,
whether it's in heartbreaking fashion or just got eat if
we had to turn around and stay to play early,
we would respond and usually do well. We'll see kids
have changed over there's obviously, uh Bridge Sport's gonna make

(09:57):
the long trip over. They're gonna leave Earl around seven thirty.

Speaker 1 (10:01):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (10:02):
These kids are kind of in the rereen as far
as school goes, kind of getting up, really going to school.
But this is a travel oh Frankfurt, I don't know.
I mean they're going all to have the advantage by
playing at home. But I still think playing that game
eleven am is going to help Bridgeport here. However, you
know Frankfort was on them, you know they but you

(10:23):
know what, this is a group of kids. These kids
are in that state championship team a year ago, so
they should be able to handle the pressure. Sure it
did last night, got some timely hits and they weren't.
They weren't phased on their So I don't know, see
what happens. Bridge Sports down to their final game here
to find a way and see what happens. But you know,
simply the Indians have to play clean. If they can

(10:44):
play clean, they got a shop.

Speaker 2 (10:46):
Yeah, no, no, no question about that. I guess the
one concern I would have is you think losing game one.
I wasn't sure whether Steve Racis was going to go
in game one or game two, And obviously Steve Racis
goes in game one provided part of his own run
support in the loss. How critical is that that Bridgeport
doesn't get the win with their ace on the mound.
It wound up being a strength on strength in game one.

Speaker 3 (11:08):
It's always critical because you want to win that first
game at home. You don't have to battle back and
win on their place. But I'll tell you what I
said all along, I thought this was going three and
I could be wrong, but I think if the Ghost
three gigs, it favors Bridgeport no matter who the team is,
with home field avantage or not. I think Bridgeport has
a deeper pitching staff. Frankfurt a much better hitting team.

(11:30):
Frankfurt Scott's some good pitching. I don't know if they
have the depth of the pitching and Bridgeport has. But
bottom mine is, let's face. You can talk about pitching,
we can talk about playing clean. The end of the day,
it comes down to bridge hitting the baseball. He did
a better job last night at times throughout that game baseball.
But Jackson Hair pitched well against him the last time
we played down the end of the end of the
month of April. And he'll get the ball this morning

(11:53):
and we'll see what happened. If Bridgeport's got a manufacturer runs,
they're going to have to start hitting the ball. They
doing a much better job here late in the year.
Their team batting averages. She went up by about five
points in the last couple of weeks in the season.
That doesn't sound like a lot, but we're talking about
team batting average, it is a lot. It's pretty good.
They're currently right around two eighty eight on the year.

(12:14):
To eighty eight, they were two eighty two to two
eighty four, so they've done a good job bringing that
up and they're hitting them all better and they're playing
their best baseball at the right now. When it comes
to offense, will it be enough, We'll see. They have
to clean like we talked about, but Frankfurt stuff, they're
going to quit the ball play, They're going to hit
the baseball. Bridge Sports got a final way to keep
them and five runs are left. That's the goal. Five

(12:36):
runs are lest no more than five and Bridge Sports
got a shot.

Speaker 2 (12:40):
Remind folks with obviously the changes to everything, where and
how they can listen to this game.

Speaker 3 (12:46):
Well, I'm gonna be honest, the game will be on
the Bridge Sports Sports for ready app But the chance
we're going to a place that doesn't have a press spot,
sell Dad over there as at a premium why is
available at the field in some spots, So we're gonna
I'm gonna go over and I'm try to do the game,
you know, and they have told me and I've been
there before for basketball and we had some success, but

(13:09):
it's iffy. I wasn't able to do a baseball game
over there years ago whenever Bridgeport won a double A
regional there to advance the state championship. But you know
that's been several years back. But we'll see. You know.
The thing is to go there and do the game
Bridgeport Sports Radio app at eleven am. I'll stay as
long as we're outside in the elements. So if there's

(13:30):
rain impending and it's going to be there, I'm gonna
have to cut take cover. There's no roof over my
head tomorrow or today, I should say. So we'll see.
But that's the game plan. And if they win Friday,
they play Saturday, whether permitting, back in Bridgeport at one
o'clock afternoon for the winter take off. From what we've
been told by the SSAC. Now this is this could

(13:52):
be updated. Since I last turned. It was yesterday afternoon
slash evening when I heard the news they had to
get these games in by We have heard that there's
an option being kicked around for Sunday for approval. They
got to get approval to play on Sunday. However, as
of last night, that approval has not been there yet.

(14:13):
I don't think they've asked it because they haven't been
in a situation. But if they get in that situation
and have to get Sunday to prove, I think that
would happen. Because they have to have it deaf done
by the weekend. They are not allowed to play anymore
in the Regionals happen after Sunday or sorry.

Speaker 2 (14:30):
And that's unfortunate. Is going to bring this up. If
you look in the in the in the region, if
you look highs in the high sixties and rain typically,
so in Bridgeport it's a twenty five percent chance of
rain on Sunday, which is one of the lowest we've seen.
In Fairmont, it's a one percent chance of rain. So

(14:51):
I'm feeling reasonably good that the weather is going to
be much better on Sunday, very very pleasant. So we'll
pay attention to that story because the weather doesn't look
super promising on Saturday, though it does look better than
it looks on Friday. So we'll see how We'll see
how all of that goes I'm going to be very
very interesting to see if either of these games are

(15:13):
able to get done.

Speaker 3 (15:15):
The one thing is the system that's supposed to move
in tomorrow's movie to east, and we're going east to
pray Frankfurt right now, as it says you and I
are recording this. The weather is supposed to start around
two o'clock tomorrow afternoon. So the hope is you get
a two hour game or so and get it in,
get it out, and get it over with before the
rain comes. That's the plan. But man, I never trusted

(15:37):
the weather. You never trust the weather. It's undictable. Man
who knows?

Speaker 4 (15:42):
Yeah, no kidding.

Speaker 2 (15:43):
Let's before we before we go to break, let's talk
a little about what's going on in the rest of
high school baseball, and we'll.

Speaker 4 (15:51):
Go around the horn a little bit.

Speaker 2 (15:52):
And why don't we start in Class single A where
Gilmour County you want again, you want to talk about
the weather this weekday at a suspended game that they
had to finish, and they did finish and got the win,
ultimately got the sweep, though it took several days to
complete it. But Gilmour County heading to the state tournament
and we'll move up through the classification system as we go.

Speaker 4 (16:14):
Thoughts on the Titans.

Speaker 3 (16:17):
Got some thoughts on both that game and East Tardy
Tigerts Valley here in the minute as well resting results
and single this week right, some surprise, not really as
much Gilmour County winning. I think that was they were
the that's on favorite. But Man High School in Logan
County has always a good baseball program and they're one
of those teams that place up a lot in compeition,

(16:38):
as does Gilmour County, and I think it's a good
story for Gilmore County. This a huge transition from a
year ago. They were really good last year and they're
good again this year, but a transition with a new coach,
a lot of new players into the program. And congratulations
to the Titans getting back to Charleston. You know, did
a good job beating Man. And it's never easy traveling
down to Man, and it's playing a team like Man.

(17:00):
Anybody from Logan County Baseball and Logan County it's all
in top notch. It's like Harrison County Baseball. It's always
been good. So congregations to Titans.

Speaker 2 (17:09):
How about you referenced Tigers Valley, so that one kind
of a shocker. They're number one in their region, East
Hardy five games under five hundred. But we just we
know this can happen this time of year. And East
already winds up sweeping Tigerts Valley as the bats were
kind of silent in game one and then the pitching
was not there in game two. Bad time of the

(17:32):
year to have that type of collapse.

Speaker 3 (17:34):
Yeah, huge, huge deal here. But here's the or here's
the thing. East already enter ten and fifteen, but a
lot of people know that they had a lot of
entry problems this year. Only one of the Hamilton twins
was available most of the year. The other one got
hurt back in the state's basketball tournament. Also, they lost
their ace pitch, Scott Sisler, earlier in the year, but

(17:57):
there to battle back and persevere, and they got both
Hamilton Tens twins in the lineup this week against Sagarts
Valley and they paid dividends in a big way and
just just an outstanding performance for East Hardy. Jackson Drinnan,
the ace pitcher for Taggart's Valley who may end up
being a first team say pitcher this past year, the

(18:20):
Potomac State signee struggled with his command of control. Early
walked four batters in that first inning. He started scored,
scored two runs in the first inning, and they picked
up another run, and they chased d Renting after five
third and then he started willing to win that game
five to two. They went down to Baker and played
two days later and that was a six to sixth
game and the bomb is seventh and Mason Hamilton had

(18:42):
a walk off to run home or started to win it.
And how about the Cougars. They're healthy, they're starting to
get their starting to collect. They have some good athletes.
That's a dangerous team heading into post seed. I hope
people don't look at their record. They'll be a four seed.
We know that that's a danger team that has athletes
and they can hit the base fall and they have
enough pitching. They have enough pitching of guys that may

(19:04):
not overpower you with philosophy, but they have enough pitching
get out there and throw strikes. They also have a
lot of guys that play through sports. All these guys
playing that baseball team played down in Charleston year for
the boys State Tournament. A lot of them played football
this year as well, So this is gonna be a
team that's gonna be a hard out in the in
in in their classifications, single is wide open. I mean

(19:28):
it is as wide open as any fall tournament in
the of course, this is the first year we've had
four class now single as wide open. It is wide open.
So congratulations East Tardy and Tigers. How you got a
feel for the man? What are year?

Speaker 5 (19:42):
They have?

Speaker 3 (19:43):
H an eight team wins season, an excellent year for them.
Whether they're better you play sometime. They beat these Tarty
twice during the regular season. Boy, he's already had their
number here in the postseason.

Speaker 2 (19:54):
Let's talk Class double A where Philip Barber comes from
behind with a fifth inning grand slam, first home run
of the career of his career for Kale Wolf and
the Colts take Game one against South Harrison. I know
you had mentioned the last time we talked you really
thought the Hawks needed game one and they don't get
the job done here. Now obviously still alive, still got

(20:16):
an opportunity here, but that's a tough way to go out,
leading later in that game and giving up an explosive
eight run inning to fall in a nine to five final.

Speaker 3 (20:27):
Yeah, big game for kl Wolf. What are you sad?
He's on pace to be a first team All stater.
You know he's he done a job it to play.
He's been one of their top two pitchers in their
rotation this year. What the heck here for Kale Wolf.
He's done excellent two hits today. You mentioned the four
RBIs with the home run. Also, how about Anthony Massesso
Here's doesn't have the stats to some of these other

(20:47):
guys have or as well known. All thet Moore did
today was go two for three with two rbs. He
had a double as well in the next sit and
then you know Jack Wilson down online up two for three.
You know I said all year long and is Philip
Barber team can hit one no matter who they put
in their lineup going through nine, and they all put
it in play and do a great We all know
about Tyler system, we all know about Landon Carpenter and

(21:09):
all those guys, can't We know about those guys and
they do play well, and they got hits today or last,
I should say. But uh, Robbie Jones, we'll talk a
little bit about him. We got to see Robbie Jones
last week and one of those regular season games Bridgeport
played there right after the top racket regional Robbie Jones
nine scoreless against Bridgeport. And he's only a freshman and

(21:32):
starting quarterback on the football team this past fall. He
doesn't look like a freshman. He's six foot sixty one.
You know, he's grown a lot. He's even grown since
football athletic as can be a winner. He came in
for Grant Harris, who struggled a little bit, gave up
five runs although only two turned. But Robbie Jones and
then in two thirds two hits, no runs. I mean

(21:55):
the freshman is not faced by the Philip Barber. What
a win there? Actually each win. Now it goes back
South Harrison. We'll see how this series go with Philip
Barber is a dangerous team now and Double A is
a dangerous field I mean Logan Wheeling Park, Phil Barbar
even South Harrison has potential here to come back and
get to here. We'll have to see how it plays out.

(22:16):
But man, Double A's loaded, but Philip for congratulations to
the Colts.

Speaker 2 (22:20):
Yeah, and of course we'll have to see what happens
in game two and Game three. Either way for one
of these programs, they are going to make history at
the state baseball tournament. Let's talk about Fairmont Senior, who
got the job done. Outstanding work. This is a Fairmont
Senior team who they're known for what they can do
hitting the ball, but the underrated aspect of this team

(22:43):
is they can pitch. They got to shut out from
their ace in game one, come out in game two
and win three to two.

Speaker 4 (22:49):
And the Falcons, who are.

Speaker 2 (22:50):
I have been told zero to ten all time in
state high school baseball tournament games. We'll get another crack
at winning that first one when they head to the
Class Trip Late tournament next week.

Speaker 3 (23:03):
Steve Iron, the former coach of those great Fairmont Senior
teams that went to Charleston, came came away from winning
that state championship. Now, they won some games, but they
didn't win. Steve narron A Coola was one of the
best baseball coaches in this are for many, many, many
many years. He's now passed away.

Speaker 2 (23:20):
Sorry, it might have been zero to ten in championship
games maybe.

Speaker 4 (23:23):
Yeah, yeah, that might have yeah.

Speaker 3 (23:25):
And Steve, what a great coach he was. He just
couldn't get over the hump and I know he's watching
down on this group right now. And Steve would be
bey to tickle to death of this group. This group's
kind of playing chip on their shoulder because they only
got fifteen kids and there's been a lot of us
going around Fairmont. Well, they have enough to have a
team next year and these guys aren't. Well, we're not

(23:46):
about next year, worried about now because we have the
team in place now. Anytime you have two pickers, Okay
and Gorby and also Logan Camfie. Today we know Gorby's done,
he's done a great job all year, and then Camfield today.
Bert Gorby's been excellent. But Canfield today complete games seven
ning's only it's allowed two runs, both unearned. And Matt
Masters here's a young man that you've heard about, the

(24:10):
pecial we've heard about Canfield, Bigelow, Gorby, Brock Martin. But
good old Matt Masters steps in there this year. He
slimmed down, he's hitting the ball with he's turned into
their number three pitcher and all he did today was
go for two with a with a big RBI including
an rb I double and Masters helped get them into

(24:30):
this Super regionals as well with his good work back
in the regional bracket rounds. Congratulations a Fairmont senior on
a Charleston a go, I would assume and guests be
a three seed. We'll see. I think Ripley is going
to be the one seed. I think the winner of
Bridgeport and Frankfurt will be the two and Paramount will

(24:53):
be the three, which will put them up with Ripley
in the first round. But this is a Fairmont team.
While they're not deep, they have a lot of power
in the lineup. They can hit, and they have two
very good quality pictures.

Speaker 2 (25:06):
And let's wrap with Morgantown. Who gets I don't think
I'm not just surprised that they got the job done,
but the way they did it in a sweep against
number one Wheeling Park, surprise you at all that this
doesn't go to.

Speaker 4 (25:20):
Three yes and no.

Speaker 3 (25:25):
Because during the regular season, Winning Park beat them two
out of three, but it was the last game of
the regular Now, the week before the regular season, they
played the OVA O v A C championship game up
at will Park and Morgantown was able to get a
win up there and it kind of carried him on.
Morgantown played really well down the stretch. I know Bridge

(25:47):
Report was able to last Friday in the last regular
season game, But congratulations to the Mohiggans. They I think
that the wins ago up at Winning Park was big.
They won up there five to three, and they were
to come home and then win last night. They'll sweep
at to nothing. Morgan advances the state tournament. George Washington,

(26:07):
like Oz advances to the state tournament. If I had
to guess, Morgantown's sitting at three range as far as
seeds go, Jefferson is up one game tonother with Hedgesville.
We'll see how that goes. If ever sinds up winning
that they'll be the one seed. GW probably the two,
and we'll see after that. Hurricane is gonna be. Actually,

(26:28):
now that I think about that work, it might be
that I'd say there's a good chance Morgantown' supports seed
with Jefferson and a combination of Hurricane and the W
two and three.

Speaker 2 (26:40):
All right, very good, Chris, thanks for going around the
horn with us.

Speaker 4 (26:43):
What we're gonna do now is we.

Speaker 2 (26:45):
Got a little little oddity day, a little scheduling oddity.
We're actually gonna take a break and Chris is gonna
rejoin us in a later segment. We're gonna talk a
little Mountain Your Baseball, and we're talking a little Pirates baseball.
The Bucco bats of all things have come alive of late.

Speaker 4 (27:00):
We'll chat about that.

Speaker 2 (27:01):
Ever since Chris gave us the stat about their inability
to get to five, I think they've done it like
six times since Chris talked to us about that a
week ago, including two big wins where they scored a
combined nineteen runs in their last two games. We will
talk all about that coming up. Chris Johnson's going to
join us next on the other side of this break,
and then we'll get Chris back on to talk a
little Mountain Your Baseball and Pirate Baseball. We're back in

(27:22):
just a moment here on the Friday Free for All,
brought to you by Dan Cavateota Buick GMC.

Speaker 1 (27:28):
Cavatoryota Wick GMC Friday Free.

Speaker 2 (27:33):
For All Back here in the studio. Friday Free for
All rolling on here, brought to you by Dan Cavateota
Buick GMC. Before we bring Chris Johnson on, let's do
the hard reset We're going to go over every series
going on right now, and let's start with the State
High School Softball Tournament, where we've already had two champions crowned.
Going back to Wednesday, Pendleton County finishes a historic season

(27:58):
thirty two and two as they get the win over
Wahama nine to one in just five innings, and they.

Speaker 4 (28:05):
Win the state title.

Speaker 2 (28:06):
Correction that one, of course, the actual championship game was
on Thursday. In Class Double A, oh Glen picked up
their thirtieth win of the season, a six inning tend
to win over Petersburg. They get the job done. So
what's coming up in the state softball State High School
Softball Tournament. Let's start with today's games. We're in Frankfurt,

(28:27):
that's at nine thirty this morning. Herbert Hoover and Winfield
will be thirty minutes after game one. Then the losers
bracket game at four thirty this afternoon, and then of
course all of this, of course, by the way, weather permitting,
the winners bracket game will be thirty minutes after that game. Saturday,
you'll have your championship games for Class Triple A and

(28:49):
then as well as Class Quadruple A tomorrow It's University
and Jefferson in Class Quade, Saint Albans and Cable Midland
and again those games we played at the other fields
same times as the Class Triple A game. We'll have
champions crowned as well on Saturday, all of course, very
much weather permitting. That is the state high school softball

(29:11):
tournament bracket. We're going to talk about it in much
more detail with our buddy Greg Carey from wv Metronews
dot Com. That coming up here a little bit later
on the show today. Now, let's move over to the
regional side of things and let's go over your results
so far. We're going to start in Class Single A,
where Gilmour County gets the job done. They're heading back

(29:33):
to the state tournament after beating Man.

Speaker 4 (29:36):
It listened.

Speaker 2 (29:36):
It took eight innings in the first game, and then
it took two days in the second game because game
two got suspended temporarily. Man pushed and made a comeback. Ultimately,
Gilmour County got the job done one eight to seven
and picked up their nineteenth and twentieth wins of the
season to advance to the Class Single A state tournament.
Greater Beckley Christian taking down Webster County nine to seven.

Speaker 4 (30:00):
An in game one of that series. East Hardy is done.

Speaker 2 (30:03):
They came from behind against Tigerts Valley or correction, I
should say they kind of came I don't want to
say out of nowhere that they were dealing with injuries
this season, but they came from They beat the chalk
if you will. A ten and fifteen East Hardy team
sweeps and upsets a number one seed Tigerts Valley team.
They are heading to the state tournament. Madonna swept Cameron.

(30:27):
They improved to twenty six and four on the season.
They are also heading to the state tournament. Out of
Class single A. Right now in double A, Logan on
top of Charleston Catholic four nothing after one, so that game,
that series going to a second game, of course for
top seed Logan. Wyoming East won their regional sweeping James

(30:49):
Monroe to pick up their twenty fourth and twenty fifth
wins of the season. Philip Barber came from behind to
beat South Harrison in game one, nine to five. Game
two set for today in a series that many see
potentially going the distance. In that one, Wheeling Central Catholic
took down Williamstown five to one. Central Catholic the one
seed in that one. They will look to punch their

(31:11):
ticket to Charleston with game two later today. In Triple
A Winfield Boy, every game was tight. They took the
first game by one run, fell in extra innings in
the second game by one run, and then one by
two in game three, ultimately upsetting Point Pleasant, the top
seed in Region four in Class Triple A, and getting
the job done. Winfield punching their way to Charleston. Ripley

(31:34):
swept Sissonville. They're heading to Charleston Frankfurt, as we talked about,
with the one ozero series lead on Bridgeport.

Speaker 4 (31:40):
We'll see what the Indians can do.

Speaker 2 (31:42):
Fairmont Senior, how about the pitching staff coming up big,
allowing just two runs against Brook and ultimately sweeping the
number one seed in Region one. Fairmont Senior heading back
to the Class Triple A state tournament in Charleston next week.
And then in Class Quadruple A, Hurricane wins the best
of three, taking game three nine to three and staving

(32:04):
off an upset bid by a number two seed. Spring
Valley GW swept Saint Albans that included an extra innings
win in game one, they're heading to the state tournament.
Jefferson up one to zero on Hedgesville right now, excuse me.
And then Morgan down sweeping Wheeling Park. They upset the
number one seed Patriots and will head to the state tournament.

(32:25):
That is, every game of postseason play that we either
have have coming up in the next day or two
or in the boys side, has been completed in those series.
So that's your reset. We're gonna go ahead and take
a quick break. All that information, by the way, available
right now at the high school Sports section of wv
metronews dot com. Chris Johnson gonna join us on the

(32:49):
other side.

Speaker 4 (32:49):
We're back after this.

Speaker 1 (32:52):
Now back to the Dan Cavatoyota Wick GMC Friday free
for all on one O three three w KMZ.

Speaker 2 (33:00):
Back in the studio, Alex Wheeerspiel here with you and
now joined on the line by my regular co host.
As we are, of course deep into baseball slash the
the off off season. Once we really get through uh
the state tournament for baseball, we're really we're really in
the weeds for for a couple of weeks until we
can start previewing football. But Chris Johnson of connect Bridgeport

(33:22):
is on the line with me.

Speaker 4 (33:23):
Good morning, sir.

Speaker 6 (33:25):
Oh, good morning.

Speaker 2 (33:27):
Uh doing good. I'm I'm really enjoying seeing the sun.
I had forgotten what that looked like. I don't remember
days quite like Tuesday and Wednesday where like like the
amount of rain we were getting. I thought we were
in like a David Fincher movie. I just didn't think
it was ever gonna stop.

Speaker 6 (33:45):
That's a good one, I know.

Speaker 7 (33:49):
At one point.

Speaker 6 (33:51):
Uh, we're both all guys, you know, we love our dolls, right,
we like to take him outside, especially when we come
to this, you know, go to the bathroom at I mean,
I feel like Alli just like looked at me and
he's like, why why will it not sum up? You know,
I'm like, buddy, I don't know, I don't know.

Speaker 2 (34:13):
So it was my my one dog, Ranger does not
mind the rain as much. But Rosie, that's exactly. She
just she's just a little princess. And so the idea
of going out in the rain. Now, I have been
told I don't know if this is right, and I'm
too lazy to look it up, but I have been
told that when it rains, dogs are sleepier. Because there's
less oxygen in the air. So they they slept a

(34:36):
lot Tuesday and Wednesday, I will say, and that was nice.
They slept a lot. Dogs are already basically asleep eighteen.

Speaker 4 (34:44):
Hours a day.

Speaker 2 (34:45):
It feels like, you know, they go real hard during
the six hours they're awake, but they're they're they're asleep
a lot.

Speaker 4 (34:52):
And uh, they slept an awful lot.

Speaker 2 (34:55):
They were both quite ready for it to end when
they finally got to go back outside on on Thursday,
because you know, when it when it rains like that,
I don't take them out together because I don't want
them for one thing. You know, one of them is
just going to stay by the door, so there's no
real point to it. It's not like they're gonna play
or anything like that. But but I I was thinking
to myself, you know that I wanted to get them outside,

(35:19):
and so finally we did that yesterday, got them outside together,
and they still were kind of like again. The one
of them was like, yeah, you're you're expecting me to
get on this get on this soggy ground. I don't
think so, brother, I don't think so.

Speaker 5 (35:34):
No.

Speaker 6 (35:34):
I know it's crazy weather too, and not only affecting
her at all, but really affecting the.

Speaker 4 (35:43):
Yeah, two straight days Bridgeport.

Speaker 2 (35:46):
I mean we were expecting to have final results for
almost every series by this point. And of course you
always account for a little bit of weather, but Bridgeport
and and Frankfurt, uh played game one yesterday and yeah, uh,
like you know, we were expecting that to have gone
final at this point. How difficult do you think that
is when you're going multiple days without being able to

(36:09):
play when you're ready for it, Like, does that impact
the psyche of the players the coaches at all?

Speaker 6 (36:16):
I would think you would have to Uh, you know,
I think that's what affects you with the pictures, because
you you've got to you know, get yourself, you know,
mentally kind of jacked up to take the mound and
it game, you know, of such importance. So I mean,
I'm sure it affects the whole team effac, you know,
you know, the coaches. But I would think, uh, especially

(36:41):
you know, you're getting hurt and you're just setting around
waiting and the games postponed, and uh, man, I would have
to think that's tough mentally.

Speaker 2 (36:49):
Yeah, that's been the whole week for everybody. So uh,
we've gotta we've got some some fun things we're gonna
bounce around on on this segment. Uh at at at
your I might add, but before we do that, I
did just want to say so. We just spent twenty
five minutes or so talking with Chris George. You know,
I think he thought that Bridgeport was the favorite coming

(37:10):
into this series, but thought it was pretty close to
being a coin flip series between the two. Well, obviously
the series has been tilted a little bit here because
the Road team won Game one. So now Bridgeport, if
they're going to do this, they've got to do it
the hard way and they've got to win on the
road in game two. Were you surprised at all to
see it go down this way? And again, very very

(37:32):
tight first game of the series. But were you surprised
at all? As good as we know, Frankfurt is really
really good. Obviously, moving up a classification sort of with
the reclassification system, they went up from double A to
triple A. But obviously they went up, but not as
up as going from double A to triple A in
the old system. But were you surprised at all to

(37:54):
see them go out and pull off the upset in
the first game, particularly.

Speaker 6 (38:01):
Just because I feel like whoever emerges from this super
regional between Bridgeport and Frankfurt is the favorites to win
the state title. So you know, if I think bridge
Sport's the best team in Triple A, I think Frankfort
is a very very close second. Uh. Now, I was
surprised a little bit by the way the game played out.

(38:26):
You know, two great pitchers, you know, Jacobs Devrakis from Bridgeport,
uh Lanson Orndorf for Frankfort. Uh got the starts and
they were untouchable. You went through the first four innings,
and about that time you get through you know that
lineup and seeing him for the third time, that's when
both teams you did a little bit of damage. You know,
Frankfort jumped out to a four nothing lead, but then

(38:49):
Bridgeport came back in the bottom of the six with
a huge inning, including you just mentioned Chris George. Uh
it was four to two at the time, and you
know sev Rackets came up and Uh George, I mean
I was sitting right beside him in the press box.
He said, Uh, boyd, this would be a great time
for Jacob to hit his second home Run of the
Year very next pitch, I mean, and it was a

(39:10):
no doubter. It wasn't one of those were all maybe
it's one of God.

Speaker 5 (39:14):
I mean, even if he hit that, we're like, no,
that's gone.

Speaker 6 (39:16):
Really, I mean, it looked like it was gonna you know, you'll,
you'll hit Johnson Avenue. That ball is hit so hard.
So that was like a really kind of thrilling moment
and tied the game up in the bottom of the
six and you think, okay, well, all right, bridge Sports
and you back in and you know they got the medo,
you know, a new game. And then you know, Frankfurt

(39:36):
gets two in the top of the seventh and Bridgeport
can only get one in the bottom of the seventh.
So great high school baseball game. You know, Bridgeport made
some base running miss fews. Uh one not necessarily well,
you know, you know you had a runner who missed
first base and you know, on a hard hit double

(39:58):
and you know the coach, Franklin coch the field, uh that, Yeah,
you know it came off you know, off the base
pass and you know, you know they probably could have
got to run out of that situation because a few
batters later, someone else in the Double. You know, coach
shields after the games, like they got to clean out
stuff like that because they're so little room mark.

Speaker 5 (40:21):
You there's not very much you know, room for error.

Speaker 6 (40:25):
Against the team as good as Frankfort.

Speaker 5 (40:26):
But uh, you know, in some ways, you know, I
don't know, maybe a little bit.

Speaker 6 (40:31):
Of the pressures all. I mean, I know it sounds
weird to say that way, but you're in a situation now,
you're a Bridgeport. You're like, no, we can't lose anymore.
You know, our next loss in the season's over because
the Double, you know, being down you know.

Speaker 5 (40:46):
One game, I mean they've got to win every game.

Speaker 6 (40:48):
From here on out, so you know, and that starts
here in a couple of hours. They're going to try
to get games before it's supposed to start raining again.
Uh you know, at Frankfort at eleven o'clock this morning.
So keeper Eyes posted it on that and hopefully they
can get it in. And I because the weather's not
looking real, real good the next two days, so.

Speaker 2 (41:06):
No, it's it's really not. And and this is one
thing I wanted to talk to about. Chris alluded to this.
I mean, I think they're going to really struggle to
get these games in and and I I do wonder
are there is there going to have to be some
give and some leeway on the idea that they're not
permitted to play on Sunday.

Speaker 5 (41:25):
To me, it.

Speaker 6 (41:25):
Seems like and there there have been times where high
school events have been able to happen on Sunday, but
it's been very very rare. We're running into is a
time element because you know, it's a baseball tournament is
scheduled to start on Wednesday.

Speaker 3 (41:46):
So.

Speaker 6 (41:48):
Your triple A, I see. And I don't know. I
don't know if this will come into a factor because
you know, to trip away games and the state tournament, Uh,
the semifinals wouldn't be until the next Friday. I thought
it would give them maybe like an extra day to
work with.

Speaker 5 (42:04):
Yeah, I'm not sure what the.

Speaker 6 (42:05):
Logistics are, but the state tournaments starting on Wednesday, so
we have to find a way to get all these games.

Speaker 4 (42:15):
Yeah, that's it's gonna be tough. Again.

Speaker 2 (42:19):
The weather does not look super promising. Sunday looks like
the most promising day coming up, So we'll kind of
see about that, all right. A couple of things wanted
to touch on before we get to sort of the
the fun part.

Speaker 7 (42:32):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (42:32):
I mean, it's all fun. Sports is fun.

Speaker 2 (42:35):
But before we get to the most fun that I
think we're gonna have with a little exercise that you
came up with real quick, let's touch on state track
Bridgeport takes some a couple of individual accolades, including, of
course who else Carter Zuliani, who is having one of
the most accomplished senior seasons of any high school athlete

(42:56):
I can I can remember since I certainly since I
started doing this, you obviously have a much larger sample
to pull from. Where does this Carter Zuliani season, everything
he's done in football, in basketball, in swim and now
in track and field, where does this and of course
committing to the Mountaineers to play football, where does this.

Speaker 4 (43:14):
All fall for for for you?

Speaker 2 (43:16):
Comparison wise, uh, to what you've seen and covered across
your your long career.

Speaker 6 (43:23):
I do not think of a senior season by any
athlete that has been more prolific and dominant than what
Carter Zuliani has has put together. You know, state football championship,
you know, plus the first team All State or.

Speaker 7 (43:42):
In football.

Speaker 6 (43:45):
State championship, in basketball, second team All state in basketball,
part of the boys swim team that won the state idol,
and within that was part of a relay team that
won a state championship of a new record, and he
cats it all off, you know that week winning. You know,
discus said the stake in field me. You know, a

(44:07):
lot of us you have been trying to figure out
has there any been anyone else ever come close to
accomplishing this. Now, there's been athletes, you know, even someone
in the area that have played you know, multiple sports
in the season and done well, uh maybe even earning
All state honors in both. But when you're talking about

(44:30):
winning a state championship in four sports in the calendar year, man,
I just I don't know. I don't think it's ever
been done. You know, I'm not one hundred percent confident,
but I'm about about ninety nine percent confident that Carter
Zuliani has accomplished something that's never been done in the

(44:52):
history of the state. So, I mean, what an amazing
senior season.

Speaker 2 (44:58):
I think it might be good to to maybe pose
that question.

Speaker 4 (45:01):
I might open that up.

Speaker 2 (45:03):
Whether it be I was going to call it, I
was going to call it Max Preps, but maybe maybe
the folks over at Tailgate Central will have some idea
if they rack their brains and go through those are
the true historians of of of high school sports across
the state. When you really widen the field, they might
be able to give us some info on that. Because no,
this is I mean, this is just an astounding, an

(45:25):
astounding end to his high school experience as as a
high school athlete, a high school student athlete.

Speaker 4 (45:31):
I mean we've talked about him.

Speaker 2 (45:33):
I don't remember like just using this as a barometer, Chris,
I don't remember us talking about a single athlete in
literally every single season over the course of our time
together doing this show where I mean he's coming up
almost every episode at this point.

Speaker 6 (45:49):
Yeah, and I you know, important part to remember about
all of this. It's like he wasn't just a kid
on the football.

Speaker 5 (45:56):
And basketball, you know, I mean he was a.

Speaker 6 (45:59):
Sign up again, the NECE again, contributor to both of
those teams, you know, winning state titles. You know, man,
you know, like I said, I know there's other kids
that have done very very well. I don't know at
that high level, even I think Lucas DeAngelo with Elkins

(46:20):
this year, I know he was part of the very
good basketball team that made it the Charleston and he
was on the football team that made the playoffs. I
think he was on the golf team.

Speaker 5 (46:28):
Uh you know right there as you know kid that
you know played.

Speaker 6 (46:30):
Multiple sports, you know, within the same season, just this year.
But you know, he didn't win state championships, you know,
like Carter has. You know, there was young man at Grafton,
you know, eight nine years ago that they maybe even
got all state honors in four different sports, but again

(46:52):
no state championships. So I mean that's the caveat right.
I mean, did not only perform performed well in multiple sports,
but to reach the pinnacle of the catcher in that
state championship. And any know, he couldn't have done alone
in any of those team titles, but I certainly was

(47:13):
a major contributor in all of them.

Speaker 2 (47:15):
Yeah, let me let me keep you for about five
more minutes so that we can make it through an
idea that you came up with I thought was a
really good one. Since we are at the end of
the academic school year, and this obviously won't be a
comprehensive list for a number of reasons, of the big
one being we're still, you know, softball state tournaments only
halfway over. We obviously haven't gotten to the state high
school baseball tournament yet, but we are really at the end.

Speaker 4 (47:37):
It's graduation season.

Speaker 2 (47:38):
I don't know, there are not many schools left still
in progress, if any at this point. If the Harrison
County schools who did not get approved for a waiver
are done, then I don't think anybody is still going.
But due to the snow days, so I think everybody
is officially reached.

Speaker 4 (47:56):
The schools out.

Speaker 2 (47:56):
For the summer segment of our of our calendar, let's
go over favorite moments of the academic year in sports,
in specifically in high school sports. I came up ultimately
with four, and that's because I'm not I'm not very
good at comprehensive lists for a number of reasons. I
don't see enough of the whole thing. But but I

(48:18):
feel like if we did a if we actually did
a poll of all of our guests, I bet we
could come up with a like a top twenty. But
I'm curious what would land on your list for favorite
moments of the high school sports season for this past
academic school year. Twenty four, twenty five I.

Speaker 6 (48:37):
You know, I have a few. Now I'm must say
up front I'm not or I'll just go aha and
say they're all tied for number one. All the state
championships from Bridge four because I've been at every single
one of them except for your Carter's your discus your
championship last week. I wasn't able to make it Charleston
for that, but just being there to see the basketball team, uh,

(49:00):
the volleyball team, the football team, swim teams, you capture
those team titles, Uh, those are all you know, you
you're tied for number one. But as far as some
individual moments, I'll start right off the bat was last night.
You know that Seve Racket's home run was as exciting
as a moment in high school baseball as I can recall,

(49:24):
because in the course of a game, uh, that I've
seen in a while. So that would be one, you
know I mentioned. I'm not gonna talk about the state titles,
but with baseball, I'm sorry, basketball and football. After the
football team won the state title, I had a moment
where I caught up with coach Ferris and I've been

(49:48):
a firm believer in this single wing offense. You know,
since he's installed it. And I told him years I said,
you're going to win the state title with this, And
to be able to walk up to him, it's like
I told you two years ago, you're going to in
a state title and he's like, yep, you did. I mean,
that was a very cool personal moment.

Speaker 3 (50:04):
For me.

Speaker 6 (50:08):
Basketball. You know, getting to tell coach Marshall you know
that he was named coach in the year after the
run they went on was a very very special moment.
Plus I got to introduce him at the Victory Awards dinner.
Another athlete I got to introduce it at dinner, Miley
Smell stand out volleyball player. It was a state volleyball
player of the Year. I'm not a photographer or a videoographer,

(50:34):
but I get lucky getting some video clips sometimes and
I got I timed it perfectly, and I said, you
know what, I'm gonna try to film this one in
slow motion. I film a kill attempt by Milly Smell
early in the season where it was just perfect. I
swear you can. It looks like the volleyball is crime.

Speaker 4 (50:54):
You got to send this to me. D you got
you gotta send that to me. Man as a as a.

Speaker 2 (50:59):
I am a you know, because I do volleyball for
Fairmont and occasionally for WVU as well. You know, I'm
a I'm an enjoyer, a purveyor. I love me some volleyball. Uh,
there's a there are a few things more satisfying in
sports than a really good kill.

Speaker 4 (51:15):
That's fantastic.

Speaker 6 (51:16):
Yeah. And then the regular season football game at Farkas Park,
South we you look, you sink back when it you know,
South was really the first team to kind of push
back against Bridgeport a little bit. Uh you know, they
got within one touchdown, had some momentum, and then they

(51:38):
made the mistakes, kicked the ball off the Alex Moses
that kick returns for a touchdown was just like so
thrilling and like, you know, Alex's I mean, I enjoyed
all the kids to get to cover. Alex Moses is
gonna be one of my all time favorites because he's
he's just such a likable person of all young man
and he gets very very excited and great quotes. And

(52:02):
I'm sure coach Farris won't even bind me saying this
because uh, you know, at times they would have to
uh uh you know, tell Alex you know, remember when
you're talking to people and try and try to be
as humble as you can. But I know, after he
scored a touchdown and they kick off, I mean he was,

(52:23):
uh he's talking to me just like they had to
know not to kick the ball to me. And then
after the game he's given all like he's given all
the credit to his teammates and as he should and stuff.
But uh, you know, and again, I you know, coach
Ferris just said to Alex, you here, stay humble about this,
and uh, that was just a cool moment. And I'm

(52:44):
like so many kids, some of the things that kid
did on the football field, I know, it would have
been hard for me to stay humble because uh you know,
and he wasn't alone. Uh, so many great moments from
that football season, but uh, you know, Alex Moses was
a walking highlight, uh you know for me this year.
So that's just that, you know, handful of my top
moments and hopefully his baseball team gives me a couple more.

Speaker 5 (53:08):
Uh.

Speaker 6 (53:09):
Then you find a way to win Game two at Frankfurt,
get the series back to Bridgeport, and advance the States
and see if the school can get one more state title.
This year.

Speaker 2 (53:19):
Yeah, real quick, before I let you go, I'm gonna
read you just a couple of the ones that I
wrote off. And the first one is the easiest one
because we already talked about it. But I just wrote
down just two words. Carter zu Leani.

Speaker 7 (53:30):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (53:30):
He's just he's He's been an unbelievable story. I don't
know where he would rank in this, but but he is.

Speaker 4 (53:35):
It's been.

Speaker 2 (53:36):
He's been an unbelievable story all year in his one
season with Bridgeport. What a what an impact he has
made across four different sports every single season. I also
have sticking with Bridgeport, I'm gonna group these together. Bridgeport
beating Fairmont Senior the second time in the semi final
game in the high school football season, that was when
I kind of felt like the team of destiny. There

(53:58):
was no question in my mind. They were going to
finish the job at the at the at the championship game.
They were going to finish the job on the road
against Fairmont Senior was the last hurdle for me, and
they got the job done. How about at a little
kudos out there to RCB A goal line stand Now
they needed a little bit of help elsewhere, but got
a goal line stand on the road at Elkins to

(54:21):
get a one point win and ultimately clinch a playoff berth.

Speaker 4 (54:25):
In football, kudos to RCB.

Speaker 2 (54:28):
Listen, they don't ask, they don't ask, how right, they
don't ask?

Speaker 4 (54:31):
How they asked? Did you do it? And they did?

Speaker 2 (54:34):
They got, They got exactly what they needed in that
moment to preserve the one point wint. Little kudos for
South Harrison. I've got them listed here twice. First for
their win over Clay County earlier this season. That was
a good Clay County win in football, made the playoffs,
high powered offense and that was to me the real
realization that this was a really good Hawks football team.

(54:55):
How about South Harrison and Liberty at Hype Field. What
an exciting moment that was to get one final game
on the football field at Heite Field, So that one
obviously on my list. And then lastly, how can we
not talk about Doddridge and Liberty. A tough way obviously
for it all to end, but Liberty extends their their
run all the way to the regional final in basketball

(55:17):
and ultimately their comeback effort against Doddridge County falls short
in the fourth quarter of that game, the final game
of the boys basketball program. And then, of course, not
long after that, Zach Bart gets announced as the new
boys basketball coach at South Harrison. So it does kind
of wind up working out for him as he gets
recognized for the hard work he put in in turning

(55:37):
around that Liberty basketball program and a little little moment.
Of course, folks, you can listen to that interview. Of course,
it is posted in podcast form. We talked with him
a couple months ago. But those are some of the
ones that really stood out to me in high school
sports in the region this year.

Speaker 6 (55:53):
Yeah, all great choices, and you know, speaking of South Harrison,
you could have easily have compiled what a ten top
fifty with Jayden touchdown r.

Speaker 4 (56:04):
Yeah, yeah, I know, I thought about it.

Speaker 2 (56:05):
I mean, he probably belonged somewhere on this list in
the same way that Carter Zuliani got his own, like
just his name. What Jaydon Hatfield did on the football
field was already I mean, absurdly impressive, and he looks
poised to have it even better junior year. But he
has been obliterating records and personal records in track as well.

(56:27):
He's having a fantastic season doing that, so a lot
of excitement for what he's going to do coming back
next season.

Speaker 6 (56:33):
Yeah. Definitely one of the best ball round athletes in
the stay right now, regardless of class.

Speaker 2 (56:38):
Yeah, Chris, much appreciated, Man. I look forward to talking
with you next week. I got a couple of fun
ideas for shows percolating in my head. But we will
have at least one more week to talk about actual
sports before we have to start getting creative with the show.
As the high school baseball tournament is rolling on next week,
so we'll have some actual games to talk about, and

(56:59):
as you alluded to, hopefully we'll have Bridgeport to talk
about as well.

Speaker 6 (57:01):
Chris, thanks many and hopefully not that I don't want
to see you in person, but hopefully I'm talking to
you from Charleston. You know, we'll be down there for
the state baseball tournament on Friday morning.

Speaker 2 (57:13):
That that would be. That would be the best case,
best case. I can't speak today, best case scenario, Chris
much appreciated.

Speaker 4 (57:19):
Man.

Speaker 6 (57:20):
All right, man, I'll talk soon.

Speaker 7 (57:21):
All right.

Speaker 2 (57:21):
See man, all right, that's Chris Johnson of Connect Bridgeport
and of course my co host on this show. And yeah,
I got a couple of ideas percolating, but we'll we'll
get to that in another time. For now, we've got
to get to a break so that we can get
to the U the other conversation with Chris George, and
then we're going to talk with Greg Carey coming up
closer to the bottom of the hour. Back after this

(57:42):
on the Friday Free for All brought to you by
Dan Kavitia Buick GMC.

Speaker 1 (57:46):
Now back to the Dan Cavatoyota w Wick GMC Friday
Free for All on one O three three w kmz.

Speaker 2 (57:53):
This is the Friday Free for All brought to you
by Dan Kavatzia to Buick GMC, Alex Wheelerspiel here with you.
Thanks to Chris Johnson for jumping on with us for
a little bit of a segment there. Chris George is
back and I want to talk a little Mountaineer baseball,
little Bucco baseball with him as well. Good to get
a little preview in because we've got Greg Carey joining
the show in a little bit and of course we're
gonna hit a whole bunch of different topics with Greg,

(58:15):
including state high school softball, which they've been able to
get quite a bit in Already two champions crowned this week,
so we'll get to that coming up with Greg, but
we'll also basically spend most of this hour talking WVU baseball.
But let's start with you, Chris, because WVU, obviously it's
been a kind of a tough stretch for them, they've
lost nine to thirteen. We've talked about the issues in

(58:36):
the bullpen, obviously, we've talked about the bats kind of
falling silent at a critical time of the year where
they couldn't really afford it.

Speaker 4 (58:42):
But all of that.

Speaker 2 (58:43):
Goes away now, much like we talked about with that
first game against Cincinnati in the Big Twelve tournament, It
all goes away when the actual tournament starts. And so
here we are. The tournament starts, They're a two seed.
They take on Kentucky in the opening round. Not the
easy draw, but it is doable. So where are you

(59:04):
on WVU? Where are you on their odds of getting
out of the Clemson Regional.

Speaker 3 (59:11):
Just this team in this season reminds me a lot
of twenty twenty three, and here we are in the
same region in twenty three with Kentucky. Now I'll be
at Kentucky with thest to that region that year. Now
we're playing them on the road, West Virginia two. See,
Kentucky's a three seed. We're playing them at Clemson. I'd
much rather Clemson than playing in Lexington. This West Virginia

(59:35):
team has soul searching, and I'm sure they've done that
here in this time away. I mean, they practiced stuff
like that, but they've had some time away here since
the Big Twelve tournament. They have to find a way
to get them in the back. You know. I had
a conversation with someone here yesterday about a high school

(59:56):
team which I mentioned that's not in this area. It's
another part of the state, and told me that this
high school team is a team that's got some talent,
but they really ride on momentum and for them, they
either goes one way or it goes the other. And
that's kind of the story this West Virginia season. And
we can talk about scheduled strengths, we can talk about
who they lost to in the conference, as far as

(01:00:18):
some of the teams, we can understand it. We've talked
about that, but this West Virginia team has really done
a great job riding that train. In momentum earlier in
the year all to about the last half of the
regular season. Then once those lady is the Marshall to
Pitt to Kansas date, it took a toll in this
team mentally, and now the momentum is heading out and

(01:00:39):
that train is going backwards at a pace that it's
out of control. Sicks aren't working. The engineer is going
to have to get some help. Well, hopefully the engineer,
which is Steve Sabans, has found that help and found
that magic formula. Try to get the psyche of this
team right. And I think it was good some time
away here and I hope they are right any better
be right.

Speaker 7 (01:00:59):
This is it.

Speaker 3 (01:00:59):
This is the seat, you know. My message to them
or me, I just think, look, guys, you had a
heck of the year. No one can take the forty
one wins away from you. Okay, you earn those wins
strength to schedule or no strength to schedule. There's still
a lot of teams you beat. Good teams beat teams
like that all the time, like West Virginia did. So

(01:01:19):
we can say, oh, well they beat this team, they
still beat them, and they beat a lot of them.
That's hard to do them. Baseball base you can lose
games against anybody any given day, especially when you play
fifty six of them, So hopefully they get the mind straight.
It's a regional where all four teams are very capable
of winning. I mean, Clemson is the eleventh one seed
for a reason. They're good. But to Clemson the bowl,

(01:01:40):
they're deffinitely talented. They're probably the best team in talent
wise Kentucky twenty eight and twenty three, but they play
at SEC. We know they're a lot better with their
record indicase in West Virginia, they won forty one games
for reasons, so we know what they can do. They
come down to pitching, because well it comes down to
hitting as well. But we'll pitch you first. I don't

(01:02:02):
know who you get. Griffin Kern would probably get the
ball game one because you have to go with him.
But do you awadh that I go with Carlstonis game
one and save Kern for a matchup with Clemson? Does
that give you the best shot to winness regional? Because
you can pitch Kern against Kentucky today and come back
with Carstonis, but you're doing it against Clemson. You may

(01:02:23):
feel like because we don't know who our number three
or number four starter is. That wild person. Go if
Carstonis game one and here from Kerrent game two, to
get self to a game three, and once I get
myself to game three, I'll take my answers with pitching
I got left because everybody else after game three is
in the same boat. So I would start Carstonis game one.

(01:02:44):
I would Griffin Kern game two, no matter what happens,
because I want to play a game three, because if
I can get to a game three, I'm gonna trust
bats are going to finally snap out of it, and
this experience team's gonna help and maybe we're gonna maybe
outscore people because that's where the offense has to come Inute
West Chimes saw score runs. They got to hit the ball.
They got to do a much better getting them get

(01:03:06):
in base. They got to get some small ball. Skylar
King's gotta, you know, snap out of it. But this
team's got to find it. And if they can do that,
get you know, pitching in the back end. They got
a shot here, but uh, coffin level one to ten,
I'm probably about a three. But if they can get
if they can get that first w wellout. Heern my

(01:03:30):
coffin level Ross will see.

Speaker 2 (01:03:32):
Cart sonas has pitched well enough that I don't think
it's I don't think it's crazy. I don't think it's
outlandish to say throw the guy on the mound for
the first game against I don't think that's crazy. I
think I think you have a better shot at, as
you said, getting to three, and to be honest with you,
I think you have a better shot at winning both
if cartsonis pitches in the first game and current pitches

(01:03:52):
in the second game. Because on the off chance that
usc upstatement, this is exactly what we saw last year.
Four seed upsets the one seed and all of sudden,
WVU is playing playing the four seed, which, by the way,
correct me if I'm wrong, Jace Reinhardt, that's his old all
the honern Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:04:08):
Yes, So he knows their players, he knows the coaching staff,
he knows their tendencies. So that could and that's good
for West Virginia. But you make a great point, just
like they talked about, West Virginia has to find a
way to get to game three, and if they can
get the game three, they look at everybody else because
they know Okay, there's other people here on the back
end of their pitching. Now, let's give it a shot
and see what happens. All the pressures on Clemson, and

(01:04:33):
Clemson's a team that likes to ground out at bats,
but they're not the Clemson of old. Any team this
region is capable of winning it at West Virginia despite
the pitching issues. That's got the score runs. Got to
find a way to score runs, or they got to
do what they did earlier in the year. Steve Sabins
is an excellent hitting coach, but hope they bring the bets.
Kyle West has only been the only one consistent all years.

(01:04:55):
Start to finish. Let's hope the others finding it.

Speaker 2 (01:04:58):
All right, very good and worth noting as well. First
pitch for this one at noon, WVU and Kentucky. The
Mountaineers looking to get to a super Regional for the
second year in a row. All right, let's talk a
little bit about the Pirates before I let you go.
They did have a kind of a surprising week. They've

(01:05:18):
had a surprisingly good trip out on the West Coast.
Hit the ball around a little bit again, nineteen runs
in the back two games against Arizona, they did get
shut out in game one of that series, which is
pretty on par for the Pirates right now. As you
pointed out last week, you know, they had gone that
wild stretch of not being able to score more than

(01:05:41):
four runs in a game or whatever.

Speaker 4 (01:05:42):
And then they did it a bunch of times this week.

Speaker 2 (01:05:44):
And what's even crazier is the pitching kind of fell
apart and they didn't win a bunch of those games.
But they are able to get two against Arizona and
then they're going to go ahead and take on San
Diego starting tonight. Is this sustainable for the Pirates what
they're doing at the late or is this a flash
in the band?

Speaker 3 (01:06:02):
Well, it's baby steps. I think some things were starting
to see. Alexander Cario is developing, Henry Davis had his
best week since he's been a pilot. O'Neill Cruz is developing.
So you're seeing some of these younger players start to
take the next step. This all started last week and
I was at the game Friday, and one thing I

(01:06:23):
was being at the game watching close up, just watching
because you know, I coached the game for years and
I wanted to take a look at their bats. And
one thing I noticed Friday and it's kind of carried
over into this week. They're starting to hit the ball
to all better. Still needs improvement there. They're jumping on
the falls early in counts, okay, they're not waiting to
get defensive and dry counts all the time. They're doing

(01:06:47):
a better job of putting the ball play over all
in general. And the pitch he's always been there. The
has some leaks in it, we've seen that, but in
the manager, Johnny Kelly is got this team playing more loose,
more free, and they're playing for him much more than
they did for Derek Shelton, which, let's face it, Derek

(01:07:08):
Shelton was the team was has grown. We're pretty much
grew tired of him, and that's just the team, it's everything,
and he struggled there. He a great guy. You hate
to see it for him, but it was time for
a change. Donna. Kelly's done well. I know last Sunday
there was some things he'd like to take back on
a couple of decisions he made, but that's baseball. You're

(01:07:29):
never going to be perfect no matter what we're at. Uh.
And then this week it just carried over an Arizona series.
You know they did an excellent job, but jumping on
balls or counts, using the entire field. You know, Davis
jumped on the first pitch home run and then his
next to bat hit it all the right center, Like,
why have you not done that? Hinry Davis is one
of those guys they can develop. Is that one one pick,
first round pick, first pick taking a twenty one dre

(01:07:52):
If he uses the entire field, he can hit more
home runs because he's strong of a kid instead of
going up there at the yank yank yank approach and
try to pull pull pull, And you're starting to see
him develop. Alexander Canario doing the same thing, getting the
ball in play, putting them play. The power will come.
So you know, Brian Reynolds starting to do the same thing.
He's jumping on the ball ar and counts, so it's

(01:08:14):
baby steps. You want to see him improve. I think
if you're a Pirates fan, if you're a support of
the program, you just want to see these young guys
that everyone has hyped and everyone has talked about for
many years. You just want to see this grow and
grow and grow and see what happens. They're not going
the pace this year. We understand that I want to
see him grow, grow, grow, don't worry about manager stuff.
At the end of the year. If it's Donnie Kelly, great,

(01:08:36):
If it's not, they'll make a decision. I still think
they need to make a move at the front office
in a new general manager. They got to reboot the
system from the inside out. But you got that stuff
after you. You can't make changes like that now. But hey,
if you're a Pirates fan, you got to be happy.
I see some progress here, but it is the Pittsburgh Pirates,
so we'll see how it goes.

Speaker 2 (01:08:56):
I think there's still like fifteen games under five hundred. Hey,
real quick before I before I let you go for
good here until next week. So there was some some
scuttle bud or talk this week about the possibility of
a Paul Skin's trade. And obviously, look, he's twenty one,
twenty two years old, young young kid, and seems pretty

(01:09:17):
unlikely that with the amount of cost control they still have,
the Pirates would even remotely consider.

Speaker 4 (01:09:22):
This right now.

Speaker 2 (01:09:22):
But it's worth noting the Pirates are obviously they're they're
they're not very.

Speaker 4 (01:09:26):
Good right now.

Speaker 2 (01:09:27):
But even you know, I saw a lot of the
reaction on social media. So the Athletic put out a
They put out an article that said, here are five
possible trade packages that you know we could see schemes
going for, and I mean people hated them. Like the
overwhelming response to Pirates fans was overwhelmingly negative.

Speaker 4 (01:09:46):
And my thought is it's not really about the package.

Speaker 2 (01:09:49):
It's about just at day's end, these guys don't want
to see another ace sold off for spare parts to
start this whole process over again. They've seen multiple times before,
and guys who are pitching well now for other teams.

Speaker 4 (01:10:05):
But where are you.

Speaker 2 (01:10:06):
On this this conversation. I don't think it's going to
really go anywhere yet. But are you surprised at all
that we're already getting the Paul Skins trade talk with
how rough of a start to the season the Pirates
have had.

Speaker 3 (01:10:20):
No, I mean, it's kind of kind of what they
kind of what they are right. I mean, they've they
got an owner it doesn't want to spend money. His
payroll in south of ninety five million for years and
years and year as it well, until two thousand and
seventeen and eight had a payroll at one hundred million
and I think it was two thousand and sixteen or seventeen.

(01:10:41):
It was actually just barely over one hundred and ever
since then, it's been below ninety. This year, it's a
little bit over now, and that's not enough. He's got
to spend more money. I don't know what he's going
to do in the future as far as that goes. No,
when they were winning back in thirteen fourteen five, if
they did spend a little bit more money to acquire

(01:11:02):
some people, So maybe he's waiting for them to be better.
But as far as Paul schemes go, right now, he's
got one year of service time. He's in year two
team control. He has one more year a team control
before he arbitration. Pittsburgh has leverage here, so have time
to see if the owner slash old general manager going forward.

(01:11:27):
I think it's Ben Sherrington's whoever else Are they willing
to add to this team next year? I think have to.
I think they need to. I think they better. Don't
know if they're going to, though, so I think you
got some time here, you have some leverage. If they
do trade him, they need to do it with the

(01:11:47):
onset of we need four or five players in return,
like the one Soto trade from Washington and when he
went to and Diego And now you look at the Nationals,
they got three or four guys out of at your
all impact players for him. So that's what you'll do.
But I wouldn't worry about it until about his first
or second year of arbitrary and see where it goes.

(01:12:09):
You got leverage to play with. Give this kid a
chance like Garrett Cole early on in his career, Give
him a chance to build down him and see what happens.
You got a window here if you get two or
three free agents in the off season, maybe trade within
the depth of your pitched staff in the myer leagues

(01:12:29):
or guys like practice of Ashcraft coming up on her
go just to name of you. You got depth in
your pitching where you can trade a couple of those
guys to get some offense in a year to help
you without spending a ton of money in process. Paul
Skin's here, you have a window right now of about
two years maybe a third that they can afford to

(01:12:51):
keep him here. I don't think he'll see three in
arbitration in Pittsburgh. I think there's a great chance he'll
see you one in year two and after that. I
think he's either traded or maybe who knows, But they
have that window to add to this team and give
it up. They failed this year. Should have done this year,
didn't do it. There's over with next year and year

(01:13:12):
after they have to make a run. I don't know
if they are. I know the Pittsburgh Coast Cazette and
Noah Howes, who's the team who covers the team. I
made a mission that he has not heard it. The
payroll increase next year. Well if that's the case, then
you're right back to work. So we'll find out. Good
question to ask me in the offseason. Right now, I
think you got to keep him. You got to maintain

(01:13:33):
with him and build around him. That's the million dollar question.

Speaker 2 (01:13:39):
Very good, Chris, much appreciated. Thanks for thanks for kind
of emptying the emptying the chamber on this one. Today
we went through the whole, the whole batting order. If
you will, we will talk with you next week.

Speaker 3 (01:13:55):
Sounds good, should be some good baby, and we'll find
out what happens a lot of these games this weekend.

Speaker 2 (01:13:59):
Yes, I promised people we would have results by today.
Instead it's going to be next week. We'll have a
lot more results to talk about, including some state tournament action.

Speaker 4 (01:14:08):
We'll get into all of that in theory.

Speaker 2 (01:14:10):
The weather does appear to be improving, so we'll take
a break and we'll talk with Greg Carey coming up.
This is the Friday Free for All, brought to you
by Dan Cavitz here a buick GMC.

Speaker 4 (01:14:18):
We're back after this.

Speaker 1 (01:14:20):
Cavatoyo WA GMC Friday Free for All.

Speaker 4 (01:14:29):
All right, we're back in the studio here.

Speaker 2 (01:14:31):
Alex Weederspiel with you on the Friday Free for All
and now joined on the line by man on location
right now at a state softball tournament. State high school
softball tournament that has already produced a couple of winners,
but they're trying to get through the rest of the
tournament and sounds like that could be trouble today.

Speaker 4 (01:14:48):
Greg Carey of wv Metronews dot Com is on the
line with us.

Speaker 2 (01:14:51):
Good morning, Greg, Good, I'm good man, I'm enjoying.

Speaker 4 (01:14:57):
I'm looking outside.

Speaker 2 (01:14:58):
We have a window in the studio, which is pretty
uncommon in radio, as we have a window in the studio.
I'm looking outside it looks gorgeous here, and I'm thinking
to myself, this is a not what I was what
I was told the weather was going to be like today.
But b I kind of know that, as everybody else knows,
there's this impending rain coming. I've been following it more
from a baseball perspective, where we know that some regional
games have moved to the morning to try and beat

(01:15:21):
the weather. That's the case for Bridgeport and Frankfurt. Over
in Frankfort today. By you, that's not really an option.
So give us the before we dive into sort of
what's happened on the field. Lead us off right now.
I know you're probably gonna get an update once you're
off the air with us, But the impending weather situation
for the state high school softball tournament is not promising
right now.

Speaker 6 (01:15:43):
It is not.

Speaker 7 (01:15:43):
We are expected to have some pretty heavy rainfall in
the South Charleston area, probably starting any really time, within
the next half an hour, two an hour. So unfortunately,
it looks like, you know, according to the radar, that
that's going to be moving in right around the first
pitch of you know what. We are two scheduled games
to start both the Tria A and Class four A

(01:16:06):
state tournament, which are most slated to begin in about
fifty minutes here at nine thirty on the dot. So
hoping to have an update you know, around the time,
maybe a little bit before first pitch. Like I said,
we don't have any rain yet. The radar has obviously
been you know wrong, plenty of times in the past,
but this one does not lend you know, much reason

(01:16:26):
for hope. It looks like it's going to be here
in like I said, within the next hour and probably
sticking around anytime until at least the early to mid afternoon.
And it looks like it's pretty heavy stuff. So while
you are talking about a couple of turf softball fields,
there has already been minor delays of you know, up
to an hour or so both days because of heavy rainfall. Fortunately,

(01:16:50):
yesterday's in particular past quickly so it wasn't much of
a hindrance, didn't exactly throw us off schedule very much.
But today it looks to be the worst weather of
the week and probably causing you know, the most in
the way of issues.

Speaker 2 (01:17:04):
And there were some really good games scheduled for today.
Undefeated Frankfurt in Class Triple A set to open up
this morning against We're Herbert Hoover and Winfield. A little
bit later University looking to begin their title defense in
Class Quadruple A of course new classification obviously, but looking
to continue that that title defense or begin that title defense.

(01:17:27):
And then they take on Jefferson, Saint Albans and Cable Midland,
all very good games. We've already crowned two winners in
Class Single A and Class Double A. But you guys
have definitely been battling the elements all week. And I
got to imagine, you know, a on a tight time
frame here, this is this is tough to get all
these games in. They're gonna have some work to do

(01:17:48):
to get everything in. I guess what was the procedure
starting with the rain here, because it is such a
big story right now, what was the procedure when there
was rain during the first two days of the tournament.

Speaker 7 (01:17:59):
Yeah, I mean, they just both of the fields where that,
you know, games are being played. In the case of
the last two days, Double A and Single A are
separated by mere feat you know, so you basically any
weather that applies to one is going to apply to
all and essentially there's just an announcement that they're pulling
both teams off the field. And then yesterday, in the

(01:18:20):
case of when they decided on a four o'clock resumption time,
about three forty five, when the rain had diminish some,
they let the teams take the field and gather for
about a ten to fifteen minute warm up session. But
I mean it is just that, you know, usually these
teams are trying to maintain energy any way they can,
whether that's through music or you know, some sort of
games in the dugout or whatever the case may be.

(01:18:40):
But obviously this is not unfamiliar territory for most of
these teams because regardless of where you are located within
West Virginia, you know, the weather has been problematic for
the better part of the last two months throughout the
spring Spots season.

Speaker 2 (01:18:53):
Let's talk a little bit about what's actually happened on
the field. Pendleton County wins in Class Single, a fantastic
season for them, and they finished thirty two and two
and they actually knock out Wahama in five innings in
the final game of the season. They also knocked out
Trinity in five innings. Just a tremendous tournament for Pendleton County.
If you add up by the numbers, they allowed one run.

(01:19:16):
I believe across three games outscored their opponents something twenty seven.

Speaker 4 (01:19:20):
Now do I have that right? Twenty seven to one
across three games, Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:19:24):
Twenty seven to one.

Speaker 7 (01:19:25):
And you know the pitcher, Bailey Beachler, she is a
Division one signee. She is bound for Robert Morris, the
first Division one signe in the history of Pendleton County
softball program. And obviously that kind of goes without saying.
You know, a smaller school located in a pretty remote area,
but a very very good class as softball team this
year thirty two and two with their record, and you look,

(01:19:47):
one of those two losses was to Frankfurt. We know
they're undefeated. They have a chance as good as anybody
probably in the TRIAA field. Their other loss was to Petersburg,
which finished runner up in Double A. So you know,
they tested themselves with a pretty challenging schedule, at least
as much as they could for a school that is
not exactly located in an area where they're able to
access a lot of opponents within an hour or so.

(01:20:08):
Pendleton County still managed to go out and played some
pretty top tier competition, whether it be from higher classifications
or other areas of the state, and really just an
all around complete team. What really stuck out to me
on Wednesday about the Wildcats was more the pitching and defense.
Yesterday and the title game was stuck out to me
more was their prowess offensively, their ability to kind of
manufacture runs with their speed but also drive ball into

(01:20:30):
the gaps for some extra base power. I think Pendleton
County left no doubt. They came down here a pretty
decided favorite. You never know how these things are going
to work out, particularly when you don't have that tradition.
You know, Pendleton County. We knew they were twenty nine
and two before the state tournament. We knew they had
some murquee wins, and they had some really talented players,
but they not ever won a state tournament before. They
had not, you know, experienced this stage, so you never

(01:20:53):
really know how they're going to react to it. But
kudos to the Wildcats because they passed every test in.

Speaker 5 (01:20:57):
A big way.

Speaker 2 (01:20:58):
How about Oak Glenn in a two shutouts and only
allowed two runs across three games and gets their thirtieth
win of the season to win the state title.

Speaker 7 (01:21:07):
Yeah, and listen, o' clinton team that had to come
out of not only a difficult section that features Wheeling Central,
a team that was you know, plenty capable, if not,
you know, more than deserving of being here. Then they
go through Saint Mary's in the regional series, Saint Mary's
in that same boats as Wheeling Central, a team that
was plenty good enough to be here at defending Class
A state champion. So you know, you see a team

(01:21:29):
like go Glenn come to the state tournament. They've got
ten losses, but you've got to remember they play a
rigorous schedule and they are a team that is built
on fundamentals. They have tremendous pitcher and Maddie Carney, but
they also really back up behind her. They back her
up well behind her and play really tremendous defense that
was on display in each of the games at the
state tournament, but it was also on display and a

(01:21:49):
lot of these postseason games leading up to the state tournament.
Because it's an o' glenn team that certainly is more
than deserving of, you know, of being a state champion.
But no one would have been surprised if they weren't
even at this state. That's how difficult of a pat
that they had to go through to get to South Charleston.

Speaker 2 (01:22:04):
Let's quickly go over the class trip a field again.
How do you feel about this group? Frankfort we or
Herbert Hoover and Winfield obviously Frankfort twenty seven and oh
and seems like they might be the favorite in the
field there. How are you how are you handicapping this?

Speaker 7 (01:22:19):
Yeah, it's you know, it's probably the most intriguing part
of the state softball tournament to me at this point
because Frankfort is undefeated. They have a couple of Division
one bound players, some other Division two level players on
their team, and they've been as impressive as any high
school softball team in West Virginia this season. But they
don't have the experience here, kind of like we just
talked about with Penalton County. They don't have that namesake.

(01:22:41):
They're not Winfield, They're not Herbert Hoover in terms of
the prestige of their program. Winfield and Herbert Hoover have
combined for the last seven state championships, each of the
last two from Winfield to five before that from the
Husky So you know, the Kadala Valley has obviously produced
some tremendous softball teams through the years, especially in what
was the old Double A and now more of a
Triple A field consisting of the Hoovers and Winfield. So

(01:23:04):
I think all three of those teams, along with Weir
and Weir is not a team that should be overlooked.
They come into this thing with twenty seven wins. I
would expect them, if and when they're able to play Frankfort,
to put up a formidable fight. I think there's a
lot of power in this.

Speaker 6 (01:23:16):
Triple A field.

Speaker 7 (01:23:17):
It's top heavy, but it's also got good balance and depth.

Speaker 4 (01:23:21):
And then let's Class Quadruple A.

Speaker 2 (01:23:23):
Let's talk about the defending champs there, University Jefferson, Saint
Albans and Cabll Midland. Who do you like to come
out of Class Quadruple A ultimately to win it all?

Speaker 6 (01:23:33):
Yeah?

Speaker 7 (01:23:34):
I think it's another very balanced field. You know, you'd
look back at last year University really surprised some people
by coming here and handling the pressure, finding a way
to persevere in some tight spots and win that state championship.
Can they do that again? We'll be a question that
you know soapfully soon will be answered. But one thing
that the Hawks have that bodes well for them is
two tremendous pitchers that they don't feel like there's much,

(01:23:57):
if any drop off between both Maddie Campbell and so
Field haaset. That goes a long way, particularly when you're
talking about the potential for whether to play, you know,
a pretty damaging role on today's schedule, and you might
be playing in back to back situations or having to
play multiple games, you know, within a couple of hours
of timeframe. Having that second pitcher to kind of take

(01:24:17):
some of the stress off of whoever you decide to
ultimately start in that first game could be a big
bolster for a university team that again is largely built
on fundamentals getting funds down, having solid defense, and running
the base as well. But certainly a for a field
where I think any of those four teams is capable,
because I'm not sure that one is really clear cut
above the rest. I kind of look at it somewhat

(01:24:39):
as similar to what I did last season.

Speaker 2 (01:24:41):
All right, very good, Greg, Let's use these final just
couple of minutes here. We'll just switch gears to WU baseball,
since that's coming up at noon today against Kentucky. Obviously,
Mountaineers don't get the result they're looking for in the
Big Twelve tournament, in particular that semi final game blown
out twelve to one. And now how you got to

(01:25:01):
see can the pitching come together in this regional? This
this doesn't feel like a team that would be favored
even if they had wound.

Speaker 4 (01:25:10):
Up coming up with a one seed.

Speaker 2 (01:25:12):
Somehow, the way they've been playing lately, that doesn't feel
like a team that is in good position to get
themselves out of a region. What do they need to
do to get out of this region and certainly get
out of this first game with a pretty good three
seed out of the SEC in Kentucky.

Speaker 7 (01:25:30):
Yeah, I don't think the importance of you know what
lies ahead here in a few hours can be understated.
I think any chief that West Virginia has of advancing
out of this regional really rests.

Speaker 6 (01:25:40):
On this first eight.

Speaker 7 (01:25:41):
I think that you know, when you talk about basically
what most people can we consider a toss up matchup
against Kentucky, you know, West Virginia is not equipped outside
of their top two or three starters. It's a bullpen
that was really good for the first two months of
the season and has fallen on hard domes over the
last three to four weeks. So, you know, the pitching
depth of the team is at quit but I wouldn't
say it's necessarily one of their top strengths. Yes, they

(01:26:03):
have relied on a lot of guys in different spots
this year for outs, but I think it's a little
bit more challenging to say that you would trust all
of those guys playing neutral site or road games in
the NCAA Tournament. So I think West Virginia's gonna have
to come out today. We're gonna have to jump on
Kentucky early, gain a little bit of confidence, and you know,
just find a way to win and get twenty seven outs.

(01:26:25):
Find a way to win this game, worry about tomorrow
when tomorrow comes. If you do win, a better chance
to not you'd be playing Clemson in a road game tomorrow.
You would expect the Tigers to probably handle business tonight
against USC Upstate, but as we know, these things don't
always work out the way you project. Look, you know,
further than last year, West Virginia was in Arizona's regional
won all three games to win the regional never once

(01:26:45):
had to play Arizona. It's kind of you know, you
kind of started looking at all if they win, they
might play this team in a bracket, but you could
really just worry about yourselves, you know. And it sounds
like there's a pretty good chance that Clemson won't be
starting as ace tonight. They're gonna do what you call
kind of you know, start off and maybe go with
the number two or three guy in an effort to
probably save that top starting pitcher for what the Tigers think,

(01:27:07):
you know, theoretically should be a tougher game tomorrow against
either West Virginia or Kentucky. But you know, for West
Virginia's end, you would expect Griffin Kern It's probably going
to be the starting pitcher today. If not, it had
to be Jack Carsonis. They're just gonna have to find
a way to scrap enough, you know, offense together. Clemson's
a ballpark that's very hit her friendly. The dimensions are
only you know, three ten down the left field line

(01:27:28):
and three twenty to right field out the league. So
if you can get the ball in the air and
the wins not blowing in, it is a park that
can be hit her friendly. Maybe that can help with
nite some offense, you know for West Virginia and the
team that kind of needs, you know, a little bit
of a jolt, a little bit of a life as
they start anew today.

Speaker 2 (01:27:42):
Yeah, we had that debate earlier on the show today. Actually,
I was talking with with Chris George of the Bridgeport
Indians play by play guy and having that debate as
well about what gets you, what's most likely to get
you if you're West Virginia to that third game? Is
it going with Carsonis or Kern? And there were some
there were definitely some thoughts on that. Do you have
I mean, do you have a thought on who's more likely?

Speaker 7 (01:28:05):
I would guess Griffin Kerr has. I mean, you know,
the thing is Steve Savids said at Monday's gathering that,
you know, he it was really time for them to
sit down and use that next twenty four hour window
to kind of look at the splits. One thing he
did mention Kentucky Levzi that's one of the top you know,
stall and based teams in the country, leaving the SEC
in that category. So they like to run a lot.

(01:28:26):
They're going to try to manufacture offense when they get chances.
Griffin Karrn being a left hand or theoretically should help
neutralize an opposing team's run game a little bit more.
But I kind of think you just stick with what
you've done. You know, Gryffin Kerr has been your number
one opening Big twelve game series starter throughout the entire season.
This is an essence going to be treated largely like

(01:28:47):
one of those games, you know, not certainly more in
the mold of a midweek game where you might see
seven or eight guys that the coaching stack wants to
get a look at pitching. This is going to, you know,
fit more of the description of those Friday night games
against your top tier Big twelve competition. I would guess
that Griffin Colonel get the nod. But certainly, as you mentioned,
at some point this weekend, you're going to see Jack Carzonis.

Speaker 2 (01:29:08):
Yeah, Kern with that fantastic outing against Cincinnati in the
Big twelve Tournament through one hundred and twenty nine pitches
in a complete game win. But he is well rested
since then, and they're going to need him one way
or another, whether it's today or in a I guess
wherever they wind up falling in the second game of

(01:29:30):
the bracket, whether they playing Clemson or USC Upstate in
what would be the winner or loser side, We don't
know yet, but very good, Greg, much appreciated.

Speaker 6 (01:29:38):
Man.

Speaker 2 (01:29:39):
I know you guys are super busy and you're coming
close to the end of another high school sports season.

Speaker 4 (01:29:45):
Graduations have actually occurred already.

Speaker 2 (01:29:47):
I don't know if anybody is still in school across
the entire state of West Virginia. Give me one real
quick before you go. Just favorite thing you've covered so far.
This your favorite moment that stands out to you of
everything that you've done. Doesn't even have to I mean,
we're phrase that doesn't have to be like your absolute favorite.
Just something that stands out to you.

Speaker 5 (01:30:05):
Really.

Speaker 6 (01:30:05):
The four A.

Speaker 7 (01:30:06):
Title football game between Spring Mills and Martinsburg was an
instant classic back and forth, a game I got to
see in the regular season, and both of those matchups
from you know, just an individual memorable night of one
game would stand out awesome.

Speaker 4 (01:30:20):
Thanks Greg, much appreciated. Man.

Speaker 2 (01:30:21):
Try to stay dry and we'll look forward to seeing
your reporting on the outcome of these state high school
softball games at wv.

Speaker 4 (01:30:28):
Metronews dot com.

Speaker 7 (01:30:30):
I appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (01:30:31):
Cool.

Speaker 4 (01:30:31):
Thanks seeing Greg.

Speaker 2 (01:30:32):
All right, that's Greg Carey of wv metronews dot com.
Of course you can follow him on the socials as well.
All Right, we got to wrap the show, folks. How
about that? How about that? It all came down to
it at the end of the day. I hope they're
able to hope they're able to deal with this. We
didn't ask him the logistics question from a baseball perspective,
and we didn't have time to get into it today.

(01:30:53):
But I mean, you're seeing it right now we talk
about the expanded tournament field. You are seeing a perfect
example right now of why I mean, we've had a
particularly wet and rainy spring, it's continuing on now into
what is supposed to be the unofficial start of summer,
and you're seeing exactly why that's an issue here at

(01:31:14):
the state high school softball tournament. If these tournament fields
are going to expand, this is the challenge that.

Speaker 4 (01:31:21):
You're going to ultimately wind up dealing with. So worth
noting there.

Speaker 2 (01:31:26):
All right, gotta go. That'll do it for the Friday
for reever. All don't forget to check out the show
in podcast form. If you are listening here on the
radio on one O three to three WKMZ and you
missed part of our show, We'll have no fear. The
podcast will be up and posted shortly and you can
follow along at the spreaker app or your preferred podcasting platform.
You can also always just check wkmznews dot com and

(01:31:49):
our podcast section, where every podcast is posted and in
order by date. All Right, got to go, Thanks for
being a part of the show today to everybody, Greg Carey,
Chris Johnson, Chris George, and we'll talk with all of
you next week.

Speaker 1 (01:32:16):
You've been listening to the Dan cavatoyot of you at
GMC Friday three for all. Be sure to tune in
every Friday as we review and preview local high school sports.
This has been a special presentation of WVRC Media and
one O three three WKMZ.

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