Oak Hill – Prior to 2022, George Washington had played just once in the state baseball tournament.
Now the Patriots have accomplished that feat twice in the last three seasons.
Leading the Class AAA Region 3 series, 1-0, George Washington swept the best-of-3 series with a five-inning, 12-1 win over Oak Hill Thursday night on Jerry Epperly Field.
The Patriots are the No. 4 seed in the Class AAA state tournament and will battle No. 1 Martinsburg next Thursday at 4:30 p.m. at Go Mart Park in Charleston.
While there was still joy amongst the Patriots following the win, the celebration was more business like this time as opposed to the win in 2022.
“When I brought them all together, I told them don’t take this moment for granted,” George Washington head coach Mike Davis said. “The school has been around for 59 years and this is our third state tournament (berth). It is special to be able to do that and they need to realize that”
Needing all hands on deck to battle the powerful Patriots, Oak Hill head coach Chris Hendrick found out earlier in the day that he would not have a full roster for game two.
“It came down the pipe that we were going to be without a couple of our starters, and one really big one,” Hendrick said. “We were saving (ace pitcher) Jayden (McClain) for tonight’s game, but he elected to do something else.”
Without the key players, Oak Hill came out flat and George Washington seized the moment.
“They looked up to (Jayden) and it effected their demeanor,” Hendrick said. “We had some kids out of position and they couldn’t make some plays.”
Never trailing in the two wins, the Patriots jumped out to a quick 2-0 in their second trip to the dish.
Corbin Dixon opened the scoring after reaching on an error. Dixon then scored on a triple from Jon Fala, who later scored via a sacrifice fly from senior Alex Wilson.
Fala made it a 3-0 game when he recorded his second RBI of the game an inning later by lifting a sacrifice fly to score Eli Smith.
Smith had doubled to open the at-bat and moved to third on an Oak Hill throwing error.
“I thought, especially early in the game, that the bottom of our order was getting things going for us.” Davis said. “That is what we need to have happen. We need to be dangerous throughout the whole line-up.”
The much anticipated explosion for the Patriots came in the fourth inning when the visitors hung a crooked number on the board for a 9-0 lead.
Coming off a three-RBI night in game one, Smith singled home two more during the outburst, giving him 50 for the season.
“I am just really confident at the plate. I know my teammates in the field are going to make plays,” Smith said.
A pair of walks and an error by GW allowed Oak Hill to score in the bottom of the fourth before the visitors closed the game out in the fifth.
Bryson Hoff made it 10-1 with a single before two additional runs were added by Dixon on a two-out single.
“This group has handled adversity really, really well all year,” Davis said. “I believe we have played a good schedule to get us ready for these moments and we are playing our best baseball now at the right time.”
Already facing a daunting task trying beat George Washington two straight games to win the regional title, in the end, Oak Hill could not overcome playing without its two key starters.
“We were kind of handcuffed tonight and that was a problem with the kids. They knew we were without two of our family members. They knew it was going to be rough, but I thought we competed with what we had,” Hendrick said. “It gives some experience to the younger kids. We have the mentality of next man up, but we didn’t think it would be two of our dogs.”
The winner between George Washington and Martinsburg will match-up Saturday in the AAA championship game opposite the winner of No. 2 Cabell Midland and No. 3 Morgantown.
“We have three kids that started on that (state runner-up) 2022 team, but the game still has to be played,” Davis said. ” It sounds simple, but we have to play clean baseball and execute situations. We have to be able to hit with runners in scoring position. That is the way it goes.”
