Lindside – After a one-year absence Midland Trail is heading back to the state tournament.
Freshman hurler Madison Rader was lights out for the second night in a row as the Patriots closed out the Class A Region 3 championship series with a 4-1 win over James Monroe Thursday in Lindside.
The regional title is the third in four years for the Patriots who came into the postseason as the No. 2 seed in their section. The Patriots will now face St. Marys in their state tournament opener on Wednesday May 22 at Little Creek Park in South Charleston.
One night after one-hitting James Monroe, Rader was again money. She didn’t allow a hit until the fourth inning and the one run she did allow was unearned. She improved to 5-1 in the postseason with a 1.36 ERA in six starts.
“The last two games I really worked on hitting my spots more in and out because the first game, it wasn’t my day, and I was walking a lot,” Rader said. “So I tried to reduce my walks to which I did today.”
After issuing four walks in Game 1 of the series, a 10-9 loss for the Patriots, Rader tightened up and didn’t bail out a struggling Maverick offense. The only free base runner she yielded came in the third when she hit Mary Beth Meadows.
“I think if you talk to people, freshman pitchers aren’t supposed to get here but she shows herself every game to be just so mentally tough,” Trail head coach Candace Young said. “She’s up for the challenge every single time and I couldn’t be prouder of her.”
“Well, she’s a good pitcher, no doubt, but I don’t think it was so much her as it was us,” James Monroe head coach Greg Wickline said. “The girls, for some reason, just quit trusting the process and went back to some old habits. They were throwing their hands at the ball and you just can’t do that and they know it but it’s a habit.”
Rader wasn’t alone though as she had help from a defense that’s been leaky at times throughout the postseason. The Patriots committed just two errors on the evening with the final one helping the Mavs score their lone run of the night in the final frame. But they more than made up for it, snagging line drives and making acrobatic plays to steal hits.
“I’ve talked about it all year that our defense, I’ve always had a lot of confidence in our defense,” Young said. “Our bats are, they’re hit or miss like we might have four girls hitting and the other five or six not. And we never have pieced together a whole nine but we’ve pieced together good defensive games. And even though we did have the 10-error game, which I still shake my head at I can’t believe that happened, but these girls come in and they bear down and they do the job.”
Rader’s gem was supported early by the bottom of her lineup. Jessie Skaggs drew a leadoff walk in the top of the second, scoring when Kylie Ramsey crushed a two-run double. Rader’s counterpart, Bryleigh Thomas, worked out of her own jams but an error in the outfield in the fourth allowed Raelyn Morris to score after a two-out single to expand the lead to 2-0.
Nevaeh Hall, who finished 4-for-4 on the night, scored run No. 3 in the fifth after stealing second and making her way home on an RBI single from Kyndal Parsons.
The Patriots put the finishing touches on the game in the top of the seventh when Rader singled and her courtesy runner eventually scored on Parsons’ second RBI of the night, a sacrifice fly.
Thomas helped her rally cause in the bottom of the frame with a one-out double, advancing to third on an error. A groundout brought her home but two batters later Rader induced a pop out to kick off the celebrations.
“I mean, that’s a great way to put it that we are ahead of schedule,” Young said. “You know you come in with a young team and you’re thinking, ‘Okay, we got a couple years to build’ and doing this this year is pretty amazing. Doing it with the girls that I have, I have the four seniors and this would be their third (regional championship), it’s amazing in itself. Just to be with those girls with all that and then to have it with the young team and know what the future could be. It’s pretty great.”
