GLEN DALE – With 10 games postponed this Spring already, John Marshall’s baseball team had yet to face a West Virginia Class AAA sectional opponent heading into the final week of April.

However, with games against Wheeling Park and Brooke on the slate over the next four days Coach Mark Cisar’s Monarchs are looking to send a message that they should not be overlooked. Monday that first message was delivered via the left arm of Jacob Korngiver and four runs over the first two innings, three of them unearned.

Korngiver went the distance, scattering six hits while fanning five and walking two on 96 pitches, and John Marshall overcame numerous threats from the Patriots to record a hard-earned, and cherished, 4-3, victory over their sectional rivals at John Marshall High School.

The victory pushes Cisar’s crew to 6-10 on the campaign with Weir slated to pay a visit this afternoon for Senior Night. Meanwhile, Coach Steve Myers’ Park squad, which will play for an Ohio Valley Athletic Conference 5A title this weekend, drops to 7-3 and will travel to St. Clairsville today.

“I am a little upset with our offense once again going stagnant and leaving too many runners on, but Jacob (Korngiver) threw the ball very well and limited walks and we made plays on defense, and I am very pleased with that,” Cisar admitted. “It’s crazy that this is our first sectional opponent we have played, but it is a big win and hopefully we can keep this going.”

While the Monarchs were opportunistic over the first two frames the Patriots were their own worst enemy and could very well have dug themselves an even deeper hole. The bottom of the first began with Brennan Sobutka working a four-pitch lead-off walk and stealing second. Sobutka went to third on Jacob Coffield’s base hit, however, Coffield was gunned down trying to advance to second.

Ethan Neely then reached on an the first of three Wheeling Park errors allowing Sobutka to score the game’s initial run. A fielder’s choice and another miscue put a runner at third, however, Patriots’ starter, and loser, Luke Doyle recorded a strikeout to end the threat.

Park manufactured a run of its own in the top of the second on the first of two Luke Marsh singles on the day, a pair of wild pitches that advanced courtesy runner Nate Bittenger and a two-out run-scoring single off the bat of Braydon Kupsky that knotted the count at 1-1.

The big inning of the contest came in the home-half of the frame with lead-off singles from Conner Blatt and Braden Sobutka and a wild pick-off attempt at first that allowed Blatt to cross to make it 2-1. Dillon Wright them brought Sobutka around with a double into the left-center field gap before stealing third and scoring himself on a wild pitch to give the hosts a 4-1 advantage.

Marsh’s second hit in the top of the fourth started what looked like a big inning for the Patriots, who eventually loaded the bases with just one out, but the visitors were only able to push across one run when Bittenger, again running for Marsh, scored on a wild pitch to cut the deficit in half at 4-2.

Doyle settled in for the Park after the second inning, allowing just two hits the rest of the way in going the distance and got a huge strikeout with two-on and two-out in the fourth, the last time John Marshall threatened. Doyle was charted with 107 pitches in the game, fanning three and walking three.

The Patriots got a lead-off single from Will James in the fifth, who stole second and scored on Jared Marsh’s base hit to make it a 4-3 game. Marsh was then thrown out trying to steal second and Korngiver retired Wheeling Park’s three and four hitters to end that threat.

Wheeling Park again had opportunities in both the sixth and the seventh with a lead-off error and sacrifice bunt putting a runner at second with one out in the sixth, which was stranded, and a lead-off, pinch-hit single from Daniel Crumm in the seventh before a strikeout and taylor-made double-play ended the game in the seventh.

“Jacob (Korngiver) made big pitches when he need too and really kept them off-balance all day,” Cisar added. “But this was a team win and I am very happy about that.”

Myers, meanwhile, had little problem putting his finger on what the biggest issue was.

“Not taking advantage of our opportunities killed us,” Myers said. “We gave them a good start and to come back you have to have timely hitting, and we just couldn’t get any (Monday). Doyle did a good job on the mound and really kept his cool after those first two innings, but you have to get the hits and we didn’t.

“We just have to put this one behind us and be ready for (Tuesday).”