St. Albans' Devon Hatfield scores on a wild pitch as Ripley pitcher Parker Keller tries to tag him out during Saturday's Class AAA state championship game at Marshall University's Jack Cook Field. (Photo by Jay W. Bennett)

HUNTINGTON — The first inning was not kind to Gilmer County and Ripley in their respective state championship games on Saturday.

The Titans, who fell to Sherman 4-1 in the Class A final, walked the first four batters of the game en route to an early 2-0 deficit that they never recovered from.

For the Vikings, who dropped an 11-3 decision to St. Albans in the triple-A title game, it was a bit of deja vu.

Earlier in the week, Ripley got punched in the mouth to begin their state title defense. The Vikings found themselves trailing 8-0 before they ever picked up a bat as Spring Valley jumped all over them. On that day, Ripley answered right back with five runs in the first and ended up rallying for a 12-10 victory.

On Saturday, Ripley got off to a better start, plating a run in the top half of the first to momentarily take a 1-0 lead. However, for the second time in three games, the Vikings’ opponent put up an eight-spot in the opening inning.

Ripley’s Bryson Casto, left, tags St. Albans’ Chance Campbell during Saturday’s Class AAA state championship game at Marshall University’s Jack Cook Field. (Photo by Jordan Holland)

Once again, Ripley faced a massive uphill battle. This time, though, it was too much to overcome.

“We dug ourselves a big hole, again, like we did in game one,” said RHS skipper Shane Casto.

The Vikings are a phenomenal baseball team, which makes it all the more jarring that this would happen to them again, twice in the same week.

“I’ve never seen anything like that,” Casto admitted.

“We got down eight and couldn’t dig ourselves out this time. We had a couple miscues and made some uncharacteristic plays. Had some walks. They capitalized on it and we didn’t. That was the difference.”

Ripley’s Nevan Cale delivers a pitch against St. Albans during the Class AAA state championship game Saturday at Marshall University's Jack Cook Field. (Photo by Jay W. Bennett)

Braxton Burke and Gavin Comer started things off with back-to-back singles against Ripley starting pitcher Parker Keller. Next batter Brogan Samms hit a grounder back up the middle for what had a chance to be a huge double play for Ripley, but second baseman John Cummings and shortstop Bryson Casto couldn’t connect on the throw, leading to the tying run scoring.

Things snowballed from there.

Eli Phalen nearly made a nice diving catch on Chance Campbell’s line drive to center, but the ball nicked off his glove to make it 2-1.

Kayden Riggan followed with a grounder to short, but Samms beat the throw home to make it 3-1.

Jonah Carte’s single made it 4-1. A wild pitch made it 5-1. Burke, batting for the second time in the inning, made it 6-1 on a fielder’s choice grounder. Comer singled for the second time in the frame to make it 7-1, and Campbell was plunked with the bases loaded to make it 8-1.

The onslaught finally came to a merciful end when Riggan’s flyball to deep center was snagged at the warning track by Phalen.

Parker Keller, Nevan Cale and Jace Goode all pitched in the inning, recording one out apiece.

As deflating as the inning was, the Vikings had no choice but to keep their heads up. After all, they’d been in this situation before.

“We just got to chip away at it, and if we can scratch out a couple runs and see what happens,” coach Casto said. “Unfortunately, it took us a few innings to get that going. They kept answering every time we would have a little threat.”

Ripley, which returned all but one player from last year’s state championship team, had a target on its back all season. As challenging as last year’s state title run was, it’s even more difficult to repeat. The Vikings dealt with injuries and adversity throughout the 2026 season, but still found themselves one win away from going back-to-back.

Unfortunately, in baseball, all it takes is one bad day — or inning — to derail your plans.

“Today, we kicked it around a little bit, and then we’d walk a couple guys — can’t do that this time of year,” coach Casto said. “They capitalized on our mistakes, and that’s what good teams do.”

Contact Jordan Holland at jholland@newsandsentinel.com.