Staff Writer



It was a tale of two halves on the week for Paden City baseball as they first played two solid games of baseball against Beallsville and St. Marys before being shutout against Linsly and Madonna.

The week started off on the positive side during an exciting come-from-behind victory in the OVAC quarterfinal game against Beallsville.

In a rematch from a game earlier in the season in which the Wildcats bested the Blue Devils, Beallsville was determined to make it a closer game and promptly went up 4-1 after two innings of play, scoring all their runs in the second stanza.

It was then the Paden City defense shut down Beallsville behind impressive fielding and pitching. Ryan Thoburn was a major part of the lockdown with seven strikeouts over the last five innings of play.

The fifth inning would be when the Wildcats made their move to regain control of the ball game. That was when Coty Meadows hit a three-run home run to tie the game at 4-4 to ignite the come back.

Justin Grimes then singled and proceeded to steal second and third bases setting up Coty Beaver. Beaver hit a shot to centerfield that eventually was caught, but was far enough to allow Grimes to score on the sacrifice fly setting up the final score of 5-4.

Others contributing include Ricky Wright, Chris Loy and Beaver all with a single. Loy also had an RBI for the first run of the game. Thoburn finished with eight strikeouts total in the complete game win.

“Beallesville was playing a pretty good baseball game,” said Coach Brent Croasmun.

“Their pitcher was getting us out and they were making plays in the field. It kept them in the game. They scored four runs in the second inning. When Meadows hit the home run it charged us up a little bit and gave us the momentum to score another run.”

The Wildcats continued their success against Blue Devils on Wednesday, only this time it was against St. Marys. Feeling that they let one get away in their previous encounter, the Wildcats came out fighting.

Paden City scored in every inning, including multiple runs in every inning but the second, leaving St. Marys inundated and wondering what happened as they quickly found themselves at the losing end of a 12-2 mercy-rule shortened game.

Wes Cosper highlighted the evening with two singles, a double, and five RBIs. The double came in the fifth inning with the bases loaded. His hit to left-center was able to clear the base paths and put the ‘Cats up and ready to lock in the 10-run rule.

Wright contributed with a single and two RBIs. Beaver also had a single and an RBI. Thoburn accounted for two hits. Malakai Anderson was credited for the win. He struck out one and didn’t give up a single base on balls.

Coach Croasmun credited the win to good pitching, good hitting and timely defense.

“We felt like we should have beat them the first time and we didn’t,” he said. “We hit the ball real well. We scored runs in every inning.”

Things quickly turned sour on Thursday as Paden City played their fourth game in four days against a difficult Linsly Cadets team.

Initially it looked as though the Wildcats would be able to keep the Linsly offense at bay. They retired the first two batters of the game and were up in the count 0-2 of the third batter. The third pitch was carried over right-center field for a home run and things started snowballing from there. The Cadets would walk away with a 14-0 win in five innings.

Cosper and Meadows were the only two people to reach safely on hits.

On Saturday, the Wildcats traveled to Bridgeport for the OVAC semi-final game against Weirton Madonna. With the Blue Dons giving the ball to one of the best pitchers in the valley with Max Nogay, Paden City was in for a long game.

“He pitched a good game Saturday and we just couldn’t get a key hit,” Croasmun said complimenting Nogay. “We had the bases loaded twice late in the game.

“In the sixth inning Wright struck out and Heasley grounded out, then Meadows struck out in seventh to end the game.”

In total, the Wildcats left nine runners stranded on the bases.

Nogay gave up only five hits. Two of them were singles to Wright. The others were shared between Thoburn Cosper and Meadows.

On the opposite end, it seemed like every inning they were able to put their leadoff batter on and scored a run each inning. The end result was an 8-0 game defeating Paden City to move on to the OVAC championship game.

“Sometimes you just have to have a little bit of luck on your side,” said Croasmun. “The last two games we didn’t have it. The two games before that we did.”

Now the Wildcats look forward to the end of the regular season and sectionals next week.

They were slated to play Bridgeport yesterday, but results weren’t available at press time. Weather permitting, they will play Doddridge County at home for senior night today.

The sectional tournament starts Monday at 5:30 p.m. against Valley. They will also play Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. against either Cameron or Hundred at Paden City.

The championship is in a double elimination format.