photo by: Kim North

Wheeling Central’s Eli Sancomb delivers to the plate Monday against Oak Glen. Making his first career varsity start, the lefty struck out five, walked two and gave up a seeing-eye single as the Maroon Knights rolled to a 24-0 victory on Chuck Howley Field inside Warwood’s Garden Park.

WARWOOD – The Wheeling Central Traveling Road Show, aka the talent-ladened baseball team, continued its impressive start to the season Monday.

The Maroon Knights (11-0) played 17 runs on 11 hits in the first two innings alone in routing visiting Oak Glen, 24-0, Monday on Chuck Howley Field inside Garden Park. The No. 1 W.Va. Class A squad has yet to play an inning at their home field – Cardinal Field at the I-470 J.B. Chambers Complex atop the hill in Elm Grove – due to wet grounds and conflicting games with Wheeling University.

“The dimensions are mostly the same anywhere you play,” Wheeling Central head coach Todd Cover explained of being road warriors thus far in 2025. “We just put our heads down and plow forward. It’s been tough … a lot of bus rides, but the kids have been resilient.”

Eli Sancomb is best known for his basketball skills but the southpaw showed the Golden Bears he’s not just a one-sport wonder. The lanky junior struck out five, walked two and only allowed a seeing-eye single in the third inning in his first career mound start. He threw 47 pitches in three innings.

“It was good to get Eli some innings. He hadn’t thrown yet this season. He was going to throw last week against Shenandoah, but the game got canceled,” Coach Cover said. “It was good to get him back into the swing of playing baseball.”

Sancomb was the beneficiary of a potent Maroon Knights lineup that drew high praise from Oak Glen (6-10) head coach Eric Hayden. Wheeling Central collected 19 base hits, with seven coming in a 9-run bottom of the first. They added eight more runs in the second on four safeties.

“That is one of the best lineups in the state for any class,” Oak Glen head coach Eric Hayden said. “It is what it is to be honest. I thought our pitchers battled. When they threw strikes, Wheeling Central hit them and hit them hard.

“I’m proud of my guys that threw strikes. They competed,” he added.

“We threw the ball for strikes and they hit lasers. I’d like to see a better lineup 1-through-9 in the state.”

Gary Hatfield and Brady Ernest did most of the early damage as Hatfield doubled and tripled in the first inning to drive in three runs. Ernest, the No. 8 hitter, recorded five RBI with a bases-clearing triple in the first and a two-run single in the third.

“I told someone the other day I feel we are pretty deep 1 through 9,” Coach Cover pointed out. “Usually in high school, once you get past the six spot, it kind of falls off, but we can start a rally at any time. Our No. 9 hitter is just as good as our No. 1 hitter.”

Hatfield, who is headed to Washington & Jefferson College to continue his academic and athletic careers, came up a home run shy of the cycle. He was one of eight Maroon Knights with a multi-hit outing.

Jake Brown added a single and double, while Seth Cover, Zayne Rosnick, Koy Lipinski, Brayden Cover and Kade Koroneos all singled twice, with Seth Cover leading the way with three RBI. Lipinski and Koroneso each had a pair of runs batted in. Every Maroon Knight starter scored at least once.

“We like to swing the bats,” Coach Cover added. “It’s a great bunch of kids to be around. They pull for each other and they’re not necessarily worried about stats, they just want to win. They are fun to be around.”

Koroneos relieved Sancomb in the fourth and fanned five of the six Golden Bears he faced.

“It was good to get Kade some work,” Coach Cover said. “He threw the ball hard. When he does that, he’s pretty hard to hit.”

Oak Glen loaded the bases against Sancomb in the third on back-to-back two-out walks and the aforementioned single by Josh Maher. However, Sancomb induced the pitcher’s best friend – a 4-6-3 double play that snuffed out the threat.

Wheeling Central travels to Noble County today to meet Caldwell in a battle of OVAC division leaders. The Maroon Knights sit atop Class 3A, while the Redskins are leading 2A at 5-0. First pitch is set for 5 p.m.

“We’ve got two tough games ahead of us,” the coach noted. “We play at Marietta on Wednesday and then we’re done until next week.”