By CODY NESPOR

Sports Writer

GLEN DALE — The last time the Morgantown softball team was in Glen Dale on May 6, the homestanding John Marshall Monarchs blanked them 6-0 and sent the Mohigans into the loser’s bracket of the Region 1, Section 1 tournament.

Tuesday’s sectional championship was a different story, however, as Morgantown managed to take game one by a 4-1 score and battled for five innings before the JM bats finally broke through and clinched the title with a 7-3 win in game two.

photo by: Cody Nespor

John Marshall pitcher Kadence Pettit winds up while pitching against Morgantown in Tuesday's Region 1, Section 1 championship.

With the double elimination format, Morgantown would have needed to beat John Marshall twice in a row Tuesday to win the trophy, while JM needed just one win.

Kadence Pettit pitched all 14 innings for the Monarchs, striking out a half dozen batters in each game and only issuing a single free pass in the nightcap.

“What an outstanding performance,” said JM coach Ed West. “She was really sharp in the first game and we just make a couple of mistakes (in the field) and didn’t give her much run support and that’s the reason why we lost. The second game, I thought she came back strong and really pitched well. I’m really proud of her.”

Pettit’s counterpart for Morgantown was MiKala Rogers, who was not with the team for last Wednesday’s game as she was out with a concussion. She was back in the circle and in the lineup Tuesday, however, and she made all the difference for the Mohigans, especially in game one.

In the first game, which Morgantown needed to win to force a winner-take-all game two, Rogers pitched seven innings of one-run ball with five strikeouts and no walks. Her two-run home run in the top of the fourth inning broke a 1-1 tie and her RBI single in the top of the sixth gave Morgantown a 4-1 cushion as she pitched them to victory the rest of the way.

“She’s been the impact player for us in the circle,” said Morgantown coach Lori Lipscomb. “We’re a better team when she’s throwing in the circle. I knew it was going to be a different game than the last time we were up here.”

John Marshall racked up nine hits in game one, but Morgantown’s stellar defense combined with some bad luck resulted in just one run for the JM lineup.

“In the first game, we had some good at bats but just didn’t get much out of them,” West said. “It just seemed like we were snakebitten in the first game…It seemed like it happened every time we would get a couple of runners on, somebody would get a nice, solid hit and there’d be (a fielder) right there to catch it.”

JM left eight runners on base in game one, and it was not looking much better throughout the first half of game two.

In the nightcap, both teams were sent down quietly for the first three innings. A pair of JM errors allowed Morgantown to score a run in the top of the fourth, but the Monarchs responded right away in the bottom of the frame. A throwing error by the third baseman allowed Ava Blake to score all the way from first base and tie the game 1-1.

John Marshall took its first lead of the night in the bottom of the fifth when Sophia Adkins’s triple chased home Emily Druschel, giving the hosts a 2-1 lead.

Beanna Marietta responded in kind in the top of the sixth, however, as she sent a ball out to straightaway centerfield with a runner on base for a two-run bomb and a 3-2 advantage.

Blake’ leadoff double in the bottom of the sixth put the tying run in scoring position, but John Marshall had not had any luck at the plate with runners in scoring position up to that point. Following a pop out, Adrianna Skryzneki battled through a nine-pitch at-bat and sent a roller back up the middle that allowed Blake to scamper home and broke the Monarch offense out of its funk, tying the game at 3-3.

“I told them after game one that we were hitting the ball and we were going to score some runs, we just had to be patient and they did,” West said. “I’m pleased that they battled back like they did and put some points on the board when we needed it the most.”

Megan Daugherty and Paytyn Tucker followed Skryzneki with back-to-back singles to load the bases before Druschel hit a screaming line drive back up the middle that deflected off of Rogers in the circle and rolled into no-man’s land in between first and second base. That allowed both Skryzneki and Daugherty to score and Tucker to reach third base, giving JM a 5-3 lead.

Emily Bailey scored a fourth run with a sacrifice bunt and Adkins singled home Druschel two batters later for the final 7-3 score.

“I don’t think there was any quit in them,” West said of his team. “I felt like we were this close from putting away the equipment for the year but they battled back and really came up strong in that sixth inning. Once it got going, that’s the way athletics goes sometimes, you get on a roll and it keeps going.”

Pettit pitched a clean top of the seventh and the Monarchs were crowned section champions.

Druschel finished with two hits and three RBI across the two games while Adkins had three hits, one a triple and drove in two runs. Blake also had three hits, one double, while Skryzneki had two singles and an RBI.

Rogers finished with a single, home run and three runs batted in for Morgantown while Marietta had a double, home run and two RBI. Like Pettit, Rogers pitched all 14 innings for Morgantown, striking out two with no walks in game two.

“They have fought all year long,” Lipscomb said of her team. “When you play toe-to-toe with a team like John Marshall, it says something about your players. You can’t say enough about how well we played, but (John Marshall) didn’t let up and they did a great job.”

The Monarchs will next play host to University on Monday, May 16 in a Region 1 playoff matchup.

Game 1

Morgantown 4, John Marshall 1

M 1-0-0 2-0-1 0 — 4 6 0

JM 0-1-0 0-0-0 0 — 1 9 1

MORGANTOWN — Rogers wp (5K, 0BB) and Harki. Marietta D; Rogers S, HR, 3rbi.

JM — Pettit lp (6K, 0BB) and Adkins, Bailey. Pettit S, D; Druschel rbi; Koontz 2S; Daugherty 2S.

Game 2

John Marshall 7, Morgantown 3

M 0-0-0 1-0-2 0 — 3 5 1

JM 0-0-0 1-1-5 x — 7 10 2

MORGANTOWN — Rogers lp (2K, 0BB) and Harki. Marietta HR, 2rbi.

JM — Pettit wp (6K, 1BB) and Bailey. Adkins S, T, 2rbi; Blake S, D; Skryzneki S, rbi; Tucker 2S; Druschel 2S, 2rbi; Bailey rbi.