By Carl Holcomb
Moorefield Examiner
Moorefield 10-12 Baseball All-Stars cruised past Grant County 12-1 in four innings during the opening round of the West Virginia District 6 Area 2 Tournament in Moorefield.
Moorefield pitcher Kaden Flinn garnered seven strikeouts in the four-inning mercy rule win.
Grant County pitcher Sawyer Metheny allowed a leadoff single by Moorefield’s Kaden Flinn.
Moorefield’s Payden Williams hammered an RBI triple down the left field line and scored on a passed ball for a 2-nil edge.
Metheny responded with strikeouts to Jason Klar and Gracin Reel before issuing a walk to Easton Sions, then jammed Keegan Weatherholtz into a pop-out to retire the side.
Flinn gave a walk to Grant County leadoff batter Colson Outs, then Jackson Cook connected for a single into right field.
Williams snatched a line drive, the Flinn closed the inning with back-to-back strikeouts maintaining the 2-0 lead.
Moorefield’s Dexten Eye grounded out back to Metheny in the top of the second inning, then Kipton Sneathen slapped a single into center field.
Sneathen stole around to third base and was stranded on a pair of strikeouts to Levi Rohrbaugh and Jacob Funk.
Grant County’s Dylan Alt hit a sharp grounder to shortstop Williams, but the throw went awry over Sions at first base for an error and Alt dashed to second base.
Flinn answered with a strikeout and induced a groundout and Sions nearly turned a double play throwing over to Reel at third base just a hair late.
Grant County cut the lead in half as Tucker Auville tapped an RBI single into center field and was chased back to first base, 2-1.
Flinn closed the inning with a strikeout.
Grant County pitcher Slade Lahman started the third inning tossing a strikeout to Moorefield’s Bobby Barr.
Flinn countered with an inside-the-park home run (triple and error) to put Moorefield ahead 3-1.
Williams knocked a single into left field and the momentum continued as Klar beat out a throw from third base for an infield single.
After a double steal, Reel was issued a free pass to load the bases.
Williams scored on a passed ball and Sions recorded an RBI groundout to extend the Moorefield advantage to 5-1.
After a walk to Weatherholtz, Grant County got out of the jam as Lahman induced a groundout from Eye.
Grant County went down in order as Flinn induced two groundouts and a dropped third strike throw to first base retired the side.
Sneathen received a walk to start the fourth inning for Moorefield, then Grant County brought in Dylan Alt to pitch.
Rohrbaugh was hit by a pitch and Funk drew a walk to load the bases.
Alt walked Barr to plate one Moorefield run.
Flinn ripped an RBI single into right field to put Moorefield up 7-1.
Williams delivered an RBI single and Moorefield attempted to send a second run across the plate, but the base runner was tagged out at home.
Klar unleashed a two-run producing double creting a 10-1 advantage for Moorefield.
Owen Braithwaite came in to pitch for Grant County and induced a groundout by Reel and the throw over to third base was too late for a double play attempt.
Sions belted an RBI double over the center fielder to put Moorefield up 11-1.
An error plated a run as Weatherholtz dashed to second base, 12-1.
Braithwaite induced a groundout by Eye to retire the side.
Sneathen caught a line drive with a broken glove and the coach came out with a new one to much laughter.
Grant County’s Sawyer Metheny crushed a double to the center field fence.
Flinn countered with back-to-back strikeouts to finish the game giving Moorefield a 12-1 victory and a meeting with Mineral County in the championship.
