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PHS baseball takes 4-2 victory

Photo by Mike Morrison Parkersburg High’s Bodie Cowan throws a pitch during a high school baseball game against Warren Thursday in Vincent. PHS won, 4-2.

­­VINCENT — Nolan Brace’s seventh inning, run-scoring double off of the wall in left field scored T.J. McIntosh with the go-ahead run as the visiting Parkersburg Big Reds doubled up the Warren Warriors 4-2 Thursday evening at Warren High School.

PHS rallied from a pair of runs down to tie the game before touching up Warren right hander Seth Dennis for a pair of runs in the final frame to improve their season mark to 8-11.

McIntosh opened the pivotal seventh inning by dragging a bunt down the first base line and moved into scoring position on a balk.

Kam Mace singled sharply into left field and one-out later Brace ripped the ball over the left fielder’s head and off the wall allowing McIntosh to score and Mace to advance to third base.

“We had a tough loss last night against South Charleston where we had the winning run on base but weren’t able to get it across but the kids came back today and did a nice job,” said Big Red head coach Alan Burns.

“Warren played a nice game as well so it was nice to find a way to get the win.”

The PHS skipper felt getting McIntosh on base to lead off the seventh inning played a key role in the victory.

“T.J.’s bunt was very instrumental and really set things up,” said Burns. “We were going to bunt him over but didn’t have to because of the balk and then a couple of the kids (Mace and Brace) who had struggled earlier in the game refocused and got the job done.”

Warren scored single runs in the second and third innings to stake claim to a 2-0 lead.

Levi Tucker walked and came around to score on a two-out double by catcher Thomas Miller for the first Warren run in the second inning.

The Warriors pushed across their second run in the third inning when Noah Edgell singled and moved to second when Brett Gandee walked before Tucker came through with a clutch two-out RBI hit to make it 2-0.

Gandee started the game for the Warriors and blanked the Big Reds for the first three innings before PHS catcher Colby Wagner crushed a long home run down the left field line with two outs in the fourth inning to cut the lead in half.

Austin Curtis followed by reaching base on what would be the only error committed between the two teams in the game and eventually came around to score te tying run on a Seth McNickle RBI base-hit.

McIntosh tossed the first two innings for PHS before giving way to right hander Bodie Cowan who went the final five frames allowing just one run and five Warren base-hits.

The Warriors stranded a pair of base runners in the fourth inning and Cowan got some big help from his defense when center-fielder Hayden Morris robbed Edgell of extra bases by making a diving catch in left center field to lead off the fifth.

After he Big Reds took the lead in the top of the seventh, Cowan allowed a one-out single to Evan Gandee before retiring Drew Huffman and Edgell on fly balls to center field to end the game.

Warren head coach Ryan Lemley gave credit to Cowan for keeping his team off the score board for the final five innings.

“I thought they (PHS) did a good job there in the seventh inning of scratching a couple of runs across and we didn’t,” said Lemley, whose Warriors slip to 9-14 on the season. “Give their pitcher credit when he came in the game we didn’t score the rest of the way.”

PHS will travel to Ripley at 6:30 p.m. Monday to open sectional play while the Warriors will travel to Eastern for a twinbill Saturday before opening their postseason on Monday as well.

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