Greenbrier East’s path to the state tournament has led to a “road closed” sign for the entirety of the program’s history.
Pavement has officially resumed.
Winning the Region 3 title last week clinched the first state tournament berth in program history for the Spartans. So what’s next? A reunion with another team that’s largely unfamiliar with the state tournament in University.
The two teams will meet Wednesday morning at 9:45 a.m. at Little Creek Park in South Charleston on The Rock Field B. The winner will face the winner of Washington-Cabell Midland Wednesday evening 30 minutes after the elimination game that features the two losing teams from the morning session. The elimination game will begin at 4:45 p.m.
The Hawks haven’t made the state tournament since 1994, so they’re on equal footing with East. But despite playing on opposite ends of the state the two teams have met once this season. East played them on the road on April 20, falling 10-7 after a four-error performance. Only four of the runs surrendered by East were earned.
“When we played them up there about a month ago, we really we didn’t do a good job fielding and we had some errors,” East head coach Aaron Ambler said. “They played a little bit of small ball with us and being on the turf for the first time this year and the small ball, we didn’t execute very well. I think we probably out-hit them that day. We just didn’t play very good defense. But, you know, we do have a little familiarity with them. So I think that’s good, especially being our first time in Charleston. You know, some of the girls have played travel ball tournaments at that park, but still we feel there’ll be some nerves going down and playing that first game that morning. So at least having University and a little familiarity, that won’t hurt.”
The trio of Maddie Campbell, Olivia Masoner and Sophia Lehosit lead University. All three are versatile sophomores. Campbell (7-4, 3.75 ERA) and Lehosit (8-5, 3.79 ERA) do most of the pitching while Masoner catches both of them.
Campbell is the team’s top hitter with a .453 batting average in addition to two home runs and 23 RBI. Masoner adds to the offensive firepower with a .475 batting average, one home run and 22 RBI.
East comparatively is senior heavy.
Backstop Alanis McClary leads the team in batting average with a .429 clip and 17 RBI out of the leadoff spot. Kayla Bartley (.383 BA, six home runs) and Taylor Boswell (.365, four home runs, 35 RBI) provide the pop in the lineup while Bartley has also been stellar in the circle.
She leads the team in innings pitched (102), wins (8), strikeouts (158) and ERA (1.57). Ambler refers to her as the co-ace alongside Lily Carola who has comparable numbers with 25 fewer innings of work. She’s 5-4 with a 2.17 ERA.
The ability to utilize two pitchers could be an advantage for the Spartans. If you lose a game on Day 1, you’ll be required to win three games on Day 2 if you want to win a title. That’s complicated if you only have one pitcher as the WVSSAC rules allow for a pitcher to throw a maximum of 14 innings in a day.
“We tell both Kayla and Lily that we don’t have a number one,” Ambler said. “We have two No. 1s and that’s kind of the way we treated them. We rotated them and we really haven’t picked out and singled out and said, ‘Well, you’re pitching today because of the opponent.’ Either one we put out there we feel like they give us a good chance to win. So you’re exactly right. Going down there with the games. You have to play double elimination in two days. It does, it takes two good arms and we’re still not even 100% sure right now who we’ll start first.”
While the Spartans don’t have experience in the state tournament they have experience against quality opponents. They’ve played top-ranked teams such as Logan, Chapmanville, Lincoln County, Morgantown Independence, Bluefield, St. Albans, Herbert Hoover and George Washington in addition to University this season. The hope is that scheduling like that pays off now.
“We’ve told the girls the last several years going into it and really going back for even longer than that, that our regular season schedule is kind of a warm up for the postseason,” Ambler said. “Wins and losses really don’t matter, truly. So we want to get them the best experience we can during the year to get them ready. When we go to the beach we want to be in the top level at Myrtle Beach when we play down there. We know where we are at Greenbrier East. We don’t have close games anyways so we might as well find the best teams in the state because we’re going to travel either way. So, we really try to find the best teams out there to get us ready.”
