ST. MARYS - Dave Wilson Field in Pleasants County Park will be the site of the LKC baseball playoffs today and Friday.
The semifinals are set for 5 p.m. and approximately 7:30 p.m. today, with the championship finals slated at 5 p.m. Friday.
Ritchie County (22-2), the top team in the LKC North Division, will face No. 2 in the LKC South in Clay County at 5 p.m. today, followed 30 minutes after its conclusion by Williamstown (20-5), No. 2 in the LKC North, taking on No. 1 in the LKC South in Gilmer County (20-7).
For Ritchie, the No. 1-ranked team in Class AA in the state, Dan Vanoy's hefty-hitting Rebels are led by Ryder Bolin with a .538 batting average, three homers, 15 doubles and 42 RBIs. Reno Jackson is batting .493 with 11 doubles, D.J. Burgess is hitting .437 with 31 RBIs, Dylan Frye is hitting at a .443 clip while Jordan Shaffer is at .436 with 28 RBIs (fourth on the team), Seth Cottrill at .421 and Mark Andrew Davis with 29 RBIs (third on the team) is hitting .333.
Ritchie's pitching is paced by Burgess at 6-0 with a 3.17 ERA and 37 strikeouts in 35.1 innings, followed by Bolin at 5-1 with a 3.87 ERA and Shaffer at 4-0.
Meanwhile, Williamstown advanced to the LKC playoffs by clipping visiting St. Marys 7-6 Tuesday to finish second in the LKC North and knock Parkersburg Catholic out of a playoff berth.
For head coach Terry Smith's Yellowjackets, Eli Gray is the top hitter with a .486 average and is the team leader in on-base percentage (.541), hits (36), RBIs (34), doubles (11) and total bases (60). Next is Dakota Watson batting .407, followed by Trey King at .405, Brandon Yost at .393 with 28 hits, 28 runs scored, 26 RBIs and 13 steals, Case Edgar at .377 with 16 stolen bases and 41 runs scored, and Josh DeBolt at .364 with seven doubles.
Austin Root tops the 'Jacket arms at 4-0 while Kody Rhyne is 5-1 and Gray 4-2.
Williamstown is batting .349 as a team with 228 hits and 76 steals.
For Joey Frashure's Titans, lefthanded hurler Karl Bennington sports a perfect 10-0 mound mark with a 1.26 ERA and 120 strikeouts in 66 innings pitched, while No. 2 twirler Austin Cunningham is 6-3 with a 4.41 ERA and 49 Ks in 41.2 innings.
Topping the Gilmer bat attack are both Cunningham and Bennington with .460 averages. Bennington has also driven in 33 runs while Nathen Allison is hitting .390 with 21 RBIs and Seth Skinner, at .330, has knocked in 22 runs.
Austin Ratliff, batting .360, leads in steals with 16, and Adam Beall, hitting .370 with 20 RBIs, shares the team lead of seven doubles with Skinner.
