Fitting, then, that it was a seven-run seventh inning that blew open Friday’s Class A softball state championship between No. 4 Wheeling Central and No. 1 Wahama, ushering the Maroon Knights to a state title with a dominant 12-2 victory.

“I’m elated, especially for my seniors,” Wheeling Central head coach Buck Davidson said. “As we all know, the last four years we’ve been coming up a game short of making it down here. And then for them to come down here and play the type of ball they did, I’m just so happy and proud of them.”

Central’s Bella Rine, Sydney Hupp and Olivia Kiaski all made the Class A All-Tournament team, with Kiaski additionally being named Tournament MVP for her efforts in the batter’s box and inside the circle.

“I feel really good,” Kiaski said after the game. “I just feel like a lot these past four years I’ve been through a lot here, and to be able to get that [award] really, it meant a lot to me.”

“She’s great,” Davidson said of his pitcher. “She came in after that first inning, she was a little flustered. Girls sat down, they talked, and then the senior came out and she settled down. And then once she hit that double, it locked her right into the ballgame. I’m so proud of her.”

Kiaski started each of Central’s four tournament games, allowing just five earned runs between her four outings.

Friday, against a Wahama team that had already played two other tournament games throughout the day, the White Falcons got on the board in the top of the first after Audrey Reynolds led off the game with a double to right-center. She stole third, and the throw down ended up in the outfield, allowing Reynolds to come home. The White Falcons doubled their early lead via a sacrifice fly from Fiona Van Matre in the same frame.

Wheeling Central tied things in the top of the third, scraping across two runs of their own. Kiaski started the inning with a double, and Berklee Heller drew a walk. Morgan Miehle and Bella Rine each drove in runs via groundouts.

Pitching and defense took over for the next four frames, with no changes on the scoreboard until the top of the sixth. Maddie Miehle led off the inning with a base hit to center field. Chloe Groome followed by drawing a walk.

Then, it was the first of what would soon be a cascade of big swings for the Maroon Knights.

Seneca Heller jumped on a fastball with a double pounded over the centerfielder’s head, scoring both runners and leaping Central into the lead, their first of the game.

Erin Maxwell later drove in Heller, hitting into a fielder’s choice. Central led 5-2 going into the bottom of the sixth.

Wahama also started the inning with a hit, but Wheeling Central cut down any White Falcon momentum with a 6-4-3 double play, followed by a pop-up.

Central’s defense behind Kiaski had been as big of an ingredient in their scoring stinginess throughout the tournament. Kiaski credited their team bonds.

“I think that we all come together as a team and we really just become one on the field,” Kiaski said. “We have such good chemistry and we just really come together as one and I think that that means a lot to us. Our friendships are so strong I think that’s really what drives it.”

In the seventh, the scoreboard spiraled fast for the Maroon.

Bella Rine and Maddie Miehle each reached, and Chloe Groome blew the game open with a no-doubt three-run blast to left field, giving her team an 8-2 advantage.

By the time Wahama managed their first out of the game, the bases were loaded for Morgan Miehle, who struck a bases-clearing double for another big breakthrough.

Bella Rine knocked an RBI double to bring the scoreboard to a 12-2 showing, where it would remain as Wheeling Central needed four batters to end the bottom of the seventh inning. The final out came from shortstop Bella Rine, who fielded a ground ball up the middle and took a force out at second base herself for out No. 3.

“When we start hitting the ball, you can’t let us hang around,” Davidson said, echoing his same sentiments from tournament games past. “You let us hang around and stay in it, we start hitting, then, as we can see, it can get out of hand quickly, the way we can hit the ball.”

“Once we start hitting and everyone starts hitting it really becomes a different game for us and we’re really consistent with it,” Kiaski said. “Once one girl goes, we all go, and I think that’s what happened.”

Wheeling Central concludes their tournament run having won four of four games across the three-day odyssey in South Charleston’s Little Creek Park.

At the end of the third day, the Knights are returning to the Friendly City happy– and with some extra hardware.

“I really don’t even know how to describe the feeling,” Kiaski said. “It’s really all surreal to me. It feels like a dream.”