Parkersburg South’s Annie Shelton delivers a pitch during a game against George Washington Saturday at Godbey Fields. (Photo by Alfonso Valdez)

PARKERSBURG — Coming off of a blowout 8-0 win against Spring Valley on Thursday, the Parkersburg South softball team relied on their momentum to breeze past the George Washington Patriots on Saturday with a 9-3 showing, their seventh win this season with six or more runs than the opposing team, to move their record to 8-3 and pushing them forward through their competitive schedule.

Parkersburg South’s victory came as an all-around team effort that displayed the togetherness seen in prior games, but sophomore pitcher Anniston Shelton’s eight strikeouts, her sixth straight game with six or more strikeouts, proved to be the driving force that gave the Patriots a reliable backbone to hold off an aggressive attitude from George Washington.

“We just pitched really well today,” said Parkersburg South head coach Tim Burch. “Everybody just did their job today, and it really helped to propel us forward.”

George Washington would lead off strong with a fly-ball out to right field for a double, before getting two hits to load the bases early in the game.

This sequence would prove to be Parkersburg South’s only noticeable low point of the game, a short-lived one that would culminate in an impressive double-play with the bases loaded to shatter the early momentum of George Washington’s gameplan.

Parkersburg South would answer back to this momentum in the bottom of the first after senior Jaiden Vargas brought in two runs off a fly-ball to left field before gaining a run for herself off of a mishandled pitch by George Washington’s catcher to end the inning with a 3-0 lead.

“We really put together a full team effort today, especially early on,” said Burch. “I felt as though we started off strong and really used that momentum going forward.”

Shelton would cruise through the top of the second inning with an impressive three-straight strikeouts, a feat that George Washington would respond to by allowing a single by Shelton in her first at-bat before ending the inning after a series of tag-outs.

The third and fourth innings would be a breeze for Parkersburg South, scoring six runs between the pair off of a left field bomb home run by sophomore Annalynn Windland to score two runners plus herself, a feat that would be followed up in the fourth after a groundball to left by senior Payten Mackey and a hit to right field by Winland to bring the score to 9-0 entering the fifth.

“I felt as though the kids really picked each other up with their hitting today, as well as in their sense of urgency to know that they needed to perform in a certain way to propel themselves as a team,” said Burch.

George Washington would finally score in the fifth after a deep fly ball to left field by Natali Tomblin to plate two runs, an effort that would be followed by an RBI by Ava Armstrong to end the top of fifth, while the bottom of the fifth would include George Washington’s Kynzi Bellamy giving up a walk to Parkersburg South’s Abbie Corbin before bouncing back quickly with two outs off of a pair of fly balls to deep left field to end the fifth inning with a score of 9-3.

The sixth inning would prove uneventful for both teams, George Washington falling victim to two outs early on in the inning before giving up the third after a fly ball would be caught by Winland, an ending that would be mirrored by the South Patriots at the bottom of the sixth with giving up two flyballs for a pair of outs and a strikeout by Winland to end the inning.

Parkersburg South’s impressive day would end at the top of the seventh after another two pop up balls and Shelton’s eighth strikeout of the game, a late game showing that resembled the issues that GW faced throughout the game.

“I’m not going to speak of cons today because I feel that we played really well today,” said Burch. “We accomplished the four phases of softball today — hitting, pitching, running bases, and playing defense — and we did all of those four phases and I believe that’s why we won”

Parkersburg South will aim to extend its 8-3 record when it travels to face Riverside today.

“Keep watching because big things are ahead,” said Burch.