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Area baseball teams seek out state berths

Ripley’s Anthony Jarvis calls for a timeout prior to a pitch against Parkersburg South in sectional baseball action earlier this month. The Vikings and fellow area programs Ravenswood and Tyler Consolidated begin their quest of making the state baseball tournament this evening in the new best-of-three regional format. Photo by Jay W. Bennett.

PARKERSBURG — Three Mid-Ohio Valley programs are still alive with their eye set on making the state baseball tournament at Appalachian Power Park.

Beginning today throughout the Mountain State, game one of the best-of-three regional series will get underway as Ripley, Ravenswood and Tyler Consolidated each try to make the state semifinals.

The Silver Knights (20-6) of fifth-year head coach Robby Jones won just the second sectional title in school history and first since 1995. TCHS, which is ranked seventh in Class A, has the tall task of heading to No. 1 Wheeling Central, last year’s state runner-up, at 5:30 p.m. today. Game two of the Region I tournament will be at the same time on Wednesday in Kidwell.

“We’ve talked to a lot of coaches and their number one pitcher, Austin Crebs, he throws gas and has good secondary pitches. He’s a strikeout pitcher,” said Jones, who hasn’t seen the Maroon Knights this year in person. “We have to find a way to put the ball in play and make them play defense against us.

“Those are the things we’ve been able to do all year, throw strikes, play defense, get on base and we have to come up with the timely hits when we can. Luke Daugherty will start game one. He’s 9-0 (2.90 ERA, 60 Ks, 70.2 IP) and he’s been our go-to guy thus far and Nate Lantz (7-3, 3.43 ERA, 45 Ks, 42 IP) will start game two as long as I don’t need him.”

Tyler Consolidated also will call upon the bullpen arms of Dylan Roberts and Trent Smith if necessary.

“Coming into the year we wanted to win 20 games and win our sectional championship and see what happens from there,” added the coach.

“I think the big thing with our kids is just the fundamentals and they come to work every day in practice and they love the game and show up everyday. They’ve been on a heckuva roll.”

Lantz leads the team with a .448 batting average and has six doubles and 17 RBIs to go along with 14 stolen bases. Roberts is hitting .443 with seven doubles and 15 RBIs and has swiped 14 bags. Right fielder Tyler West leads the team in doubles with 12 and runs-batted-in with 26. He’s hitting .408.

In the Class A, Region IV series, No. 2 Ravenswood (20-7) welcomes in Buffalo for a 6 p.m. first pitch.

“We have faced them twice. We won 10-0 and 8-3. It’s set up good, but Buffalo is playing a little bit better ball,” admitted Red Devil skipper Wes Swain, who will have Chase Swain toe the rubber in game one versus the Bison.

Chase Swain, along with hitting .500 with nine doubles, five home runs, 37 RBIs and having a .646 on-base percentage, is 5-0 on the mound with a 1.10 ERA and 74 punchouts in 44 2-3 innings.

“We will go with Nathan Curtis (5-1, 2.22 ERA, 51 Ks, 34.2 IP) in game two (at Buffalo),” coach Swain added. “We lost in the regional semifinal last year against Weir. We like it (the new best-of-three format) because we’ve got all kinds of pitching. I’ve always said I wish the state tournament was best-of-three, too.

“To me, it forces coaches to work on pitching. If anybody has watched West Virginia high school baseball, they know there is not a whole lot of pitching. That’s our biggest thing right now, we are looking to develop pitching because after next year we are going to need some pitching.”

Ravenswood also can call upon Nic Taylor and Lakin Tucker out of the bullpen. Taylor is hitting .383 with six doubles and 21 RBIs to go along with a 16-3 walk-to-strikeout ratio and 14 stolen bases. Blake Bennett, who has a dozen steals, has driven in 26 runs and carries a .398 average to go along with 11 doubles and a pair of round-trippers. Curtis is second on the team in average (.446) and had eight two-baggers, two taters and 31 RBIs.

Ripley is the only team trying to make it back to the state tournament after falling 3-0 to Nitro in last year’s semifinals. Ravenswood was last there in 1999 when the Red Devils won the double-A title and Tyler Consolidated never has gone.

The Vikings of head man Shane Casto are ranked No. 9 in Class AAA and sport a 19-10 record. Ripley will head to No. 1 Hurricane at 6 p.m. today and then welcome the Redskins at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday at Ray Swisher Field at Viking Park in the battle for Class AAA, Region IV supremacy.

“They thumped us twice, 11-2 at their place and 17-4 at our place,” noted Casto, who likely will start either Lane Casto (8-3, 2.16 ERA, 52 Ks, 61.2 IP) or Dane Petersen (6-2, 2.24 ERA, 32 Ks, 43.2 IP) in game one, but also could turn to Ben Mack (4-2, 2.26 ERA, 34 Ks, 43.1 IP).

“They haven’t seen our number one or two yet. Ben has been kind of hobbled here the last couple of weeks. He threw off the mound for the first time (last week). He’s still not 100 percent.”

The skipper figures the Redskins will throw Garrett Gress (9-0, 0.81 ERA) in the opener.

“He’s a good pitcher and he’s had a great year for them. We’ve seen him a few times in the past,” he added. “Hurricane has quite a few kids who have good arms and they are probably a little deeper than we are. They are a great program and I fully expect their ‘A’ game.”

Anthony Jarvis boasts a .640 on-base percentage thanks to his 22 walks drawn versus just 10 strikeouts. He’s hitting .483 with 10 doubles, two homers and 18 RBIs.

Remy Boyce sets the table as the leadoff hitter and is hitting .380 with eight doubles, one bomb and 15 RBIs. Lance Casto leads the team with 33 RBIs. He has collected nine doubles and hit two home runs to go along with a .315 average. First baseman JT Kemp has delivered 22 runs-batted-in with a .356 average and nine doubles.

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