Photo by Cody Tomer Tyler Consolidated’s Ty Walton and the Silver Knights are vying to keep their season going today as they host Ritchie County in sectional action.

SISTERSVILLE — Not much has been able to slow down the Tyler Consolidated baseball team this season. A fast-acting lightning storm moving through Sistersville on Friday did the trick, however.

Continuous thunder and lightning flashes in the area forced play to be suspended in the bottom of the first inning in a Class A Section 2 elimination game between Ritchie County and the homesteading Knights Friday evening.

The Rebels (14-11) led 2-0 with one out in the bottom of the first inning when umpires heard nearby thunder and ordered both teams to retreat into their dugouts. A second thunder delay was called minutes later and the game was officially suspended after lightning was seen around 6 p.m. Play will pick up from where the teams left off in a continuation today at 1 p.m. on Tyler’s field.

The suspension also pushes back the Section 2 championship game, originally scheduled to be played today at No. 1 Williamstown. The winner between Tyler and Ritchie will now travel to play the Yellowjackets on Monday. Should the visiting team win Monday, a winner-take-all game will be played Tuesday for the section crown.

Regardless of today’s outcome or whatever may or may not happen against Williamstown, the Knights (21-8) have already put together a season to be proud of.

They’ve set a new school record for the most wins in a season with 21 and also won the first conference championship in school history when they won the LKC Championship 2-0 over Williamstown earlier this month.

“We’ve seen a lot of good baseball this year,” coach Rob Jones said. “We’re in the toughest section, in my opinion, in the state of West Virginia with Williamstown, Tyler, St. Marys and Ritchie. We’ve played a lot of competitive, good baseball teams this year.”

A big reason for the Knights’ success this year has been their three-headed monster on the mound of junior starting pitchers Ty Walton, Jayden Helmick and Hayden Brown. Walton, a south-paw, tossed his fourth-career no-hitter earlier this season against Ravenswood and Helmick threw a complete-game shutout in the LKC Championship.

“All three of them have been really tough as starters for us this year,” Jones said. “Between our top three starters, we’re pushing 200 strikeouts on the year. We’ve leaned on them.”

It’s not just their starters, Tyler has the depth to compete on the mound inning after inning, game in and game out.

“We have some very capable arms for us out of the bullpen as well,” Jones continued. “Carson Gorby, Owen Westbrook and Alec Chaplin, to name a few. We’ve played really good defense too, the kids have played really well all year on defense.”

It’s a similar story at the plate, where Tyler has top-end talent spotting the top of the lineup and enough solid depth the whole way down to give ensure that opposing pitchers never get a rest.

“The kids have been working really hard since February when we started in the gym,” Jones said. “They really push each other. They love this game and we’ve just been on a roll.”

Helmick, Walton and Brown are regulars atop Jones’s lineup card, but catcher Zade Billings has burst onto the scene with a breakout sophomore season to complete a deadly quartet of hitters.

“You don’t see too many sophomores that are leaders on a team,” Jones said. “Zade Billings is a leader on this baseball team. He’s caught every inning behind the plate and he controls the pitching staff. He’s in charge of the defense, all the plays we run go through him. He’s a kid that’s very deserving of recognition when the postseason awards come out.”

Tyler has some work to do to continue its season past today, facing a 2-0 deficit when play resumes against Ritchie and needing to top Williamstown two days in a row, but Jones and the Knights aren’t too keen on shying away from a challenge.

“Right now, our backs are against the wall,” Jones allowed. “We have to win the next three games to extend our season and to get to that final eight against the Region 1, Section 1 opponent.

“We knew coming into this that we would have to play a lot of good baseball and have to string good games together in order to move on to our goals. The LKC championship was a great thing for the school, our kids and their families, but our focus right now is on trying to win these next three ballgames and extending our season into the regional.”