Parkersburg uses big 6th to pull away from Marietta
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PARKERSBURG -- Drew Woofter was a homer shy of the cycle, Caden Parker worked four innings for the win and Nelson Woofter hurled three frames for the save as Parkersburg upended Marietta, 7-1, here on a rainy Wednesday evening at City Park's Bennett Stump Field.
The Big Reds of skipper Alan Burns gave Parker his first career start and the sophomore responded with four solid innings. He allowed three hits, an earned run and issued a pair of free passes while fanning four. Nelson Woofter didn't allow a hit, walked two and punched out three.
Marietta head man James McKitrick's squad, now 2-5 with a home game Friday versus Alexander, only trailed 2-1 heading into the bottom of the sixth before the red and white pushed across five runs.
"We just need to be able to field the ball," said McKitrick, who lost sophomore infielder Ethan Clark on Friday to a shoulder injury against Warren. "Our pitchers have done a great job all year. They are up 2-1 and both of those runs are unearned."
Parker got things started for the Big Reds in the first when he reached on an error and scored on Drew Woofter's RBI single.
The Tigers tied it in the fourth when Kevin Wallace singled to center and later scored on an RBI bunt single down the first-base line by Weston Davis. PHS responded in the last of the fourth with the go-ahead run. Nelson Woofter singled and raced to third when losing pitcher Izak Knighten (5 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, BB, SO) had an errant pickoff throw. He later scored on Evan Elliott's sacrifice fly.
Cameron Goeller entered in the sixth after Knighten was removed following a Drew Woofter double and a free pass to Ethan Marshall.
After that, things got away from the Tigers. Nelson Woofter followed with an RBI two-bagger and Izek Baldwin walked to load the bases. Elliott's single back up the box scored courtesy runner Evan Craven to make it 4-2, Colin McCarter followed with an RBI infield single. PHS senior Alec Holbert then came to the dish as a pinch-hitter and was able to record another infield RBI single when he hit a chopper that Goeller leaped for, but went off the webbing of his glove and fell behind him toward second base. Parker later added a fielder's choice RBI for the six-run cushion.
"He's finally back," coach Burns said of Holbert. "He got an at-bat and did a good job. He's cleared to throw, but not to pitch yet so we got him on a throwing program the therapist gave us. He'll be back and able to pitch in a week or so. I told the kids I think we had a little bit of a hangover from last night.
"We got home around 11:30. They didn't look sharp early in the game. They were lunging on the pitches and finally started staying back and did a good job. Caden did a nice job and that was a good start for him, and we got Nelson back to where he was."
Parkersburg will take an 8-3 record into Friday's Ed Carter tournament at Capital. The Big Reds face the host Cougars at 2 p.m. and then clash with Chapmanville at 4 p.m.
McCarter, thanks to his infield single, joined Nelson Woofter with two hits.
"Some of the harder balls we hit don't go in for hits and then some of the dinks fall in. That's baseball," added Burns.
Tiger leadoff man Malachi Morton finished 1 for 2 and drew a pair of walks. No. 2 hitter Bryson Chavez had a sac bunt and was plunked twice. He also joined Morton on a double-steal in the third inning.
"It's just a matter of pitchers have to keep doing what they are doing," added McKitrick. "Cameron came in and threw strikes. We are just not doing a good job of backing them up. We just go to find a combination in the defense.
"If that means bringing some guys up, some younger guys we feel can do the job, we're going to do it. We got to find something that works to reward these pitchers for doing their job."
Contact Jay Bennett at jbennett@newsandsentinel.com