Sports Writer

GLEN DALE — The John Marshall bats came to life early in Thursday’s Class AAA Softball Sectional game and the Monarchs never looked back in collecting a 6-0 win over visiting Morgantown.

John Marshall plated four runs in the first inning and pitcher Kadence Pettit kept the Mohigans off the scoreboard the rest of the way.

Morgantown will host Wheeling Park tonight in an elimination game with the winner traveling to John Marshall on Saturday, needing to beat the Monarchs twice to advance.

“Unfortunately their best pitcher wasn’t here,” JM coach Ed West said. “But that’s part of the game. We came out and hit the ball and played well.”

Morgantown’s top two pitchers Mikala Rogers and Mo Wilson were out of Wednesday’s game so freshman Liz Alsop got the start in the circle.

“We have our No. 1 pitcher in concussion protocol and our other pitcher threw up on the way here,” Morgantown coach Lori Lipscomb said. “That’s what life throws at you sometimes. You still have to come and play the game. The girls played well and rallied around Liz.”

In the first, JM catcher Sophia Adkins singled and scored on a RBI double by Paytyn Tucker.

Pettit helped her own cause with a two-run single to create a 3-0 cushion and an error made it a 4-0 JM advantage after one.

Pettit was lights out after that as she struck out the side in the third and fanned a total of 14 batters, while walking one and allowing just one hit in her third contest against the Mohigans this season.

“Kadence looked really sharp,” West said. “She had 14 strikeouts and allowed one hit. That’s a great performance and I told her so. She really had good command of her pitches. I’m sure knowing the hitters helped seeing them for the third time but her changeup was really working well, too.”

Shelby Koontz supplied a RBI groundout in the third to extend John Marshall’s lead to 5-0 and an Ava Blake RBI double to center capped the scoring at 6-0.

Abigail Harki garnered Morgantown’s only hit in the fifth inning. The Mohigans are hopeful that they will have at least one of their top pitchers back for today’s game.

“This doesn’t end our season but it builds confidence for Liz,” Lipscomb said. “Kadence Pettit has great speed and every year when she gets in the postseason she throws even better but we have to have the mentality that we can hit her.
“We’ll be at home (today) and our defense will step up. We’ll get Mikala back and hopefully Mo is OK. Hopefully we live to come back and face JM again here.”

Blake tallied a single and a double in the win, while Pettit garnered two hits.

“We just have to see who we have next,” West said. “It could be Saturday or Monday because it’s supposed to rain all day (today). We’ll just have to wait and see.”