NEW MARTINSVILLE — Magnolia baseball picked up its third straight win Wednesday, downing visiting Bridgeport (Ohio) 3-1 in a rain-shortened contest.

Kaleb Starkey led the charge with both his arm and bat, striking out 10 on the mound while supplying two doubles on the plate.

Starkey scattered just two hits and one walk across five innings of work, allowing just one run. At the plate, he hit two doubles, driving in a run and scoring another himself.

Support on offense came from Drake Kocher and Matt Adnerson, who both had base knocks.

St. Clairsville 8

John Marshall 6 (Continued game)

ONE SUSPENDED game morphed into a second one Tuesday afternoon.

John Marshall traveled to St. Clairsville to complete a game that was halted on April 20 at Glen Dale with the two teams deadlocked at 5-5.

The Red Devils, cast in the role of visitors, erupted for three runs in the seventh inning to pocket an 8-6 win.

St. C. tallied its runs on three Monarch errors and an RBI single from Mason Myers.

John Marshall didn’t go quietly in its final at -bats.

Chase Kerns opened with a double. After a strikeout and groundout, Brennan Sobutka laced an RBI single. Ethan Neely followed with a single before Hunter Hoffman induced a groundout to end the game.

Hoffman earned the mound win.

As fate would have it, the second game was suspended in the top of the first. John Marshall had runners on second and third with no outs when the clouds opened up.

COLLEGE

GOLF

Wheeling Women

Bounce Back on Day Two

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — After dealing with bad weather conditions on day one of the 2022 NCAA Women’s Golf East Regional Championships, the Wheeling University Women’s Golf team looked for a bounce back performance on day two. Four of the five Wheeling golfers showed improvement on their scores on day two and Wheeling dropped their total team score from 361 on day one to 351 on day two of the event.

The Cardinals remain in 15th in the standings after 36 holes and have one more round on Wednesday as they look to make up ground on McKendree University for 14th.

After shooting a 94 on the first day of competition, Kylee Tolliver dropped her score by nine strokes in round two to hold the top spot for Wheeling with a score of 85.

Nicole Lincicome was next on the Wheeling scorecard, lowering her score by one stroke to finish round two at 88. Emily Holzopfel finished right behind Lincicome, posting an 89 to raise her score by two from round one.

Rounding out the day two leaderboard for the Cardinals was senior Olivia Zampedro and junior Zoila Herrera. Zampedro dropped her score by two strokes from day one, shooting an 89, and recorded the team’s only birdie of the day on hole 16. Herrera dropped her score five strokes from her day one performance and was helped out by a successful front nine that saw her pickup three pars to finish at +8 on the front nine.

TRACK AND FIELD

Wheeling Men Finish Second in MEC Championships

GLENVILLE — After two hard days of competition, the Wheeling University Men’s Track & Field team entered the final day sitting in third place on the 2022 Mountain East Conference (MEC) Outdoor Track & Field Championships leaderboards. The final day saw the team crown five individual MEC Champions and break three MEC Outdoor Championship meet records as they finished second overall with a team score of 139. It was a strong day throughout for the Cardinals and the first champion was crowned from the first event of the afternoon.

The day began with the Men’s 4×100-Meter Relay with Wheeling’s team consisting of Lorenzo Pelham, Jabez Reeves, Brian Vandusen, and Julian Griffin.

The team set a new MEC Championship meet record with a time of 41.36 seconds and tied their personal PR that they set back at the Jesse Owens Classic. Three of the four members of the relay team won Individual Championships throughout the day as the Cardinals continued their strong showing. Pelham was the first to win his individual championship, claiming the title in the Men’s 110-Meter Hurdles with a time of 14.78 seconds.

Griffin finished right behind him in second place at 14.90 seconds to give the Cardinals the top two spots in the event.

The Cardinals next champion was crowned in the Men’s 400-Meter dash, where TJ Tindal was defending his title from indoor season. The senior had another strong showing at the Outdoor Championships and set a new PR winning the event in 47.75 seconds, running .31 seconds faster than his previous time. The final MEC Champion of the day was sophomore Jabez Reeves, who took home two titles in the 100- and 200-meter dashes.

His top performance was in the 200-Meter dash when he set the new MEC Outdoor Championship meet record, running the event in 21.58 seconds. He finished his day with a win in the 100-Meter Dash, where he ran a 10.91 to cap off the day.

Overall, the Cardinals crowned seven individual MEC champions across the three-day event and broke three MEC Outdoor Championship meet records during their time at Glenville. They finished in second place in the MEC Outdoor Track & Field Championships for the second year in a row but continue to trend upward on the national scale.

Fodor Breaks Meet

Record for Cardinals

GLENVILLE — After three long days of competition, the 2022 Mountain East Conference (MEC) Outdoor Track & Field Championships came to an end on Wednesday with the running of the remaining track events. The Wheeling University Women’s Track & Field team had a strong showing on the final day and finished fourth overall in the field with a team score of 93.

In her final MEC Championship event, it was senior Caroline Fodor who broke the MEC Championship meet record in the Women’s 800-Meter. She was one of three athletes to break the meet record, running the event in 2:17.85 as the women raised the bar on the mid-distance event. Fodor finished second in the field behind Alderson Broaddus’s Taylor Butler, who finished with a mark of 2:17.76. The Cardinals other second place finish of the day came courtesy of the 4×400 Meter Relay team, consisting of Fodor, Jenay Soumahro, Keala Mccurry, and Ka’Niya Mcgowan. The team finished with a new PR of 4:01.51, beating their previous mark by more than three seconds.

After review the MEC overturned a disqualification for Jenay Soumahro in the Women’s 400-Meter Hurdles, and she became the MEC Champion in the event. She was the second MEC Champion crowned for the Women’s team during the MEC Outdoor Track and Field Championship and the only MEC Champion crowned on the third day of the event.

WLU Women Place Second

GLENVILLE, W.Va. – The West Liberty University women’s track team took runner-up honors and Adam O’Donnell was honored as the 2022 Mountain East Conference Outdoor Field Athlete of the Year here Tuesday as the MEC Track Championships concluded its three-day run at Glenville State.

Coach Justin Simpson’s Hilltopper women had led throughout the meet only to see a late surge in Tuesday’s running events boost Charleston past WLU for the women’s team title. The fast-closing Golden Eagles finished with 217.5 points to 184 for the Black and Gold. West Virginia Wesleyan was a distant third at 122.5 with Wheeling (93) and Concord (49) rounding out the top five.

Kelsi Hulit, a returning All-Region thrower, played a major role in the WLU women’s domination of the field events during the first two days. Not only did she sweep the shot put and discus titles, she placed third in the hammer and fourth in the javelin to add more than 30 points to the Hilltopper total.

TENNIS

WOMEN

HILLTOPPERS NET NCAA TOURNEY BID

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – The West Liberty University women’s tennis team is going back to the NCAA Division II Atlantic Region Tournament.

Coach Heather Gallagher’s Hilltoppers were announced Tuesday night as the No. 5 seed in the region and will open Atlantic Region play Friday at 10 a.m. against No. 4 seed Slippery Rock (Pa.) in an Atlantic Region semifinal at the Maple Street Courts in Indiana, Pa.

The winner of that match advances to Saturday’s regional final against host and No. 1 seed Indiana (Pa.) to play for one of the 16 spots in the NCAA Division II Nationals, set for May 17-21 in Altamonte Springs, Fla.

MEN

WLU Draws Mercyhurst

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – The West Liberty University men’s tennis team had its ticket punched to the 2022 NCAA Division II Atlantic Region Tournament on Tuesday night.Coach Ronnie Hulewicz’s Hilltoppers were installed as the region’s No. 5 seed and will take on No. 4 seed Mercyhurst (Pa.) in an Atlantic Region semifinal on Monday at 11 a.m. at the Schoenbrun Park courts in Charleston.

The winner of the Mercyhurst-West Liberty match moves on to Tuesday’s regional championship match against top-seeded and No. 19-ranked Charleston, the tournament host. Tuesday’s winner moves on to the 16-team NCAA Division II Nationals set for later this month in Altamonte Springs, Fla.