No. 3 Wheeling Sweeps Barton, Advances to Championship Series

Pioneers Now Await Maynard-Moundsville Winner

WEST LIBERTY - They're back and looking for redemption.

Third-seeded Wheeling completed its sweep of No. 2 Barton Wednesday night in an Ohio Valley Baseball League best-of-3 semifinal series with a 10-2 victory on West Liberty University's Kovalick Field. This came after an 11-10 win on Tuesday in Crescent.

The Pioneers (10-10) finished runner up to two-time defending champion Maynard last summer in a three-game sweep. However, this year they want a different result.

"We seem to save our best for the end of the season," Wheeling manager Scott Shaw said. "Pitching has really been good for us down the stretch. We are finally starting to hit the ball up and down the order. We're getting lucky, too."

Wheeling didn't waste any time in jumping on the Braves (14-7), who ended the season on a 5-game losing streak.

"All I can think of is the Hare vs. the Tortoise story," a disappointed Barton manager Billy Timko said. "It's not how you start, but how you finish. Tonight was like the other games in our streak, we'd get a hit here and there, but we couldn't string any together and get anything going offensively.

"No excuses, though. They (Wheeling) were a better team than us."

The Pioneers sent 18 batters to the plate in the second (8) and third innings (10) while tallying eight runs. For the game, they collected 11 hits - all singles and played station-to-station baseball.

Sonny Peluchette sparked the three-run second with a two-run, two-out single to left. That followed an RBI single by Doug Clark.

Chase Goff (single), Nathan Miklos (ground out), Peluchette (infield single) and Dylan Gongola (single) accounted for four RBI in the five-run third. The other run scored on an error, one of four committed by Barton.

Adam Och capped Wheeling's scoring with a two-run single in the fifth.

While the Pioneers had four different players (Peluchette, Gongola, Och and Josh Schramm) with two hits each and three (Ryan Hummell, Goff and Schramm) who each scored twice, lefty Ryan Porras only allowed a first-inning solid single to center by Colton Coss. He wasn't overpowering despite striking out nine, of which five were looking. He also walked six.

Porras, who served as graduate assistant pitching coach at Wheeling University last season, has pitched in the Pecos League. The southpaw needed 113 pitches in his outing, with 60 being strikes. He allowed both runs.

"He was here all summer and wanted to play. I told him that was no problem with me," Shaw added.

Drake Dobson walked to start the Barton fourth. He moved to second on a wild pitch and scooted to third on a passed ball. He would race home on Zac Taylor's ground out.

The Braves second run came in the fifth when Kobe Hill walked leading off. A groundout moved him to second and he took third on a wild pitch. With two outs, Hill caught the Pioneers napping when he stole home.

Coss also singled in the seventh for Barton.

When asked who he would rather play, Shaw said it really doesn't matter.

"We've been pretty competitive against Maynard. Whoever shows up for Game 1, we'll be ready."

Moundsville 4, Maynard 3

GLEN DALE - The fourth-seeded Expos evened their best-of-3 semifinal series with a walk-off victory over the top-seeded Indians on the John Marshall High School diamond..

Game 3 will be played Friday on Firemen's Field inside the Maynard Community Park. First pitch at 6.

No details provided.