The act of waiting out a storm- which never really came- was itself the calm before a different kind of storm for John Marshall.

After play resumed, the Monarchs would put together a nine-run sixth inning to turn a 4-2 deficit into an eventual 11-8 WVSSAC Class AAA Region 1, Section 1 victory over the Patriots, sending John Marshall to a sectional championship bid against Morgantown on Friday.

“I saw them play almost a perfect game,” John Marshall head coach Robby Blake said. “We’d been waiting for this all year, and for the bats to come alive like they did today, it was a long time coming. We have a young group, but they can really play. They showed it today on the field. [Wheeling Park] is a good team, after the first game I said they were better than us, but you know what, I think we played really well today.”

A double by freshman Brenna Tipton and single by junior Grac Tamburin each scored two for Wheeling Park in the third inning. John Marshall’s Ella Finley belted a home run to dead center in the fourth inning to bring the Monarchs closer, 4-2.

Shortly after the lightning delay ended, it was raining hits for John Marshall in the bottom of the sixth.

With two runners on and no one out, the Monarchs’ Tori Finley laid down a good bunt attempt. A hurried throw went wide of the first baseman, into right field, and allowed a run to come in for John Marshall.

Coming back to the top of the lineup, Masyn Inclan smacked a two-run rocket to right field to give the Monarchs a 5-4 lead.

A Paislee Babiczuk ground ball snuck out of the infield to bring home another run, and Ella Finley clobbered a double to left-center to bring home two more. With one out, John Marshall was looking at a commanding 8-4 lead.

Another ground ball through the infield by Lily Dijkstra scored two more, and Tori Finley came back up to bat and capped off the scoring spree with a towering triple over the centerfielder’s head to score one and set the scoreboard to an 11-4 Monarch advantage.

“It all falls on us as coaches,” Wheeling Park head coach Pat Durkin said. “After the weather delay we didn’t have them coming out the way we should’ve. We sat for 45 minutes, it falls on us, we should’ve had them ready to play ball and we didn’t. When Delaney [Randolph] got hit, Emma [Wear] came in and did a really good job. We weren’t ready, we didn’t get them ready to play.”

Wheeling Park staged a desperate comeback bid of their own in the top of the seventh, loading the bases with one out after successive hits from Tipton, Brynn Ernest and Tamburin. Delaney Randolph drove in two with a double ripped to the left field wall, and a Rylee Braunlich groundout scored one more to cut the lead to four, 11-7. Olivia West singled to tack on another run, but a tall fly ball to left field made for the final out, and cut off the comeback.

Durkin was still proud of his team after the dust settled.

“You just have to look at the last inning,” Durkin said. “We were down, [John Marshall] put up a lot of runs in the sixth and we could’ve just folded. But the seniors we have, they wouldn’t let that happen. They got together, they said let’s get it going. The seniors did a nice job boosting our younger players up and we scored some runs again. One fly ball drops, it’s a different story.”

Inclan collected three hits for John Marshall, while Nora Shock, Ella Finley, and Kaylee White each had two. Ella Finley drove in four runners, while Dijkstra and Inclan each had two RBI.

Brenna Tipton, Brynn Ernest and Grace Tamburin each had two hits for Park. Tipton and Randolph each finished with a pair of RBI.

John Marshall and Morgantown played in the sectional championship last year as well, the Mohigans winning 18-10. The Monarchs will have to beat Morgantown twice to claim the sectional title.

“It’s going to be a tough road,” Blake said. “I told them that we need all of our focus on the first game. We’ll see what happens from there.”