Hurricane wraps up sectional championship with 6-2 win at Parkersburg South - WV MetroNews (2024)

PARKERSBURG, W.Va. — Back in 2019, Hurricane’s softball program won its fifth straight state championship during a time when the Redskins were the premier program in West Virginia.

While there wasn’t a state tournament the next season, Hurricane has not played in one since then — something this year’s group hopes to change.

The Redskins took a significant step toward doing so Monday when they finished off a Class AAA Region IV, Section 2 championship with a workmanlike 6-2 victory over Parkersburg South at Godbey Fields.

“We feel like this program plays for championships and we really wanted to bring another one home,” Hurricane head coach Meghan Stevens said. “We’re super excited about it.”

Hurricane (20-6) took advantage of a one-out double from Alexandra Anderson in the top of the first inning when MacKenzie Kessel drove Anderson in with a two-out double.

Parkersburg South (18-9) countered and produced half of its offensive output during its first trip to the plate, which featured Becca Beatty’s leadoff walk and a Brylee Hatcher double to center that brought Beatty home.

But the Redskins answered quickly in the form of Elise Pye’s leadoff home run to left in the second inning, and from that point forward, Hurricane was in front. The visitors wasted no time doubling a one-run lead as they had three consecutive batters reach with two outs against Patriots’ pitcher Lexi Dellinger, including a bases loaded walk drawn by Katelyn Hopkins that forced in the Redskins’ third run.

HHS pitcher Kathryn Justice retired PSHS in order with a pair of strikeouts in the second, and the Redskins added to their advantage in the third frame to take control of the contest, utilizing a two-run single from Anderson with two outs for a 5-1 advantage.

“We’ve been really hot with the bats, but we talked on the bus about wanting to score early and put the pressure on them since we’re in the driver’s seat,” Stevens said. “I was really glad we came out and did that, and it was a total team effort after that. We had great defense, great pitching, great energy in the dugout and they found a way to win. I’m super proud of them.”

That was more than enough support for Justice, who held the Patriots without a run in the third and fourth innings, allowing one hit over that time and keeping her team comfortably in front.

“She’s a phenomenal pitcher. She throws junk and it moves,” Parkersburg South coach Tim Burch said. “We got on to her the last game and couldn’t get on to her this time. That’s high school football and kids. We have a very good softball team, but we didn’t put it all together tonight and all the aspects of the game didn’t come together.”

Anderson added a two-out, run-scoring single in the fifth to make it 6-1, while the Patriots capitalized on Beatty’s single to leadoff the bottom of that inning and scored their second run on an error.

After scoring its second run, Parkersburg South produced one more baserunner — Beatty on a two-out walk in the seventh.

Anderson sparked her team’s offensive output with three hits and drove in three runs. Kylie Bailey added two hits from the No. 9 spot in the lineup.

About the only negative for the Redskins was that they left 11 runners on.

“We got timely hits early when we needed them. We definitely left too many on, but we’ll clean that up and get it going again to be ready for regionals,” Stevens said.

Justice walked five and allowed four hits, while striking out 10.

“She’s been mentally tough this year and really gritty,” Stevens said. “She’s just a sophom*ore. She came in here last year and lost to Parkersburg South and she was not going to let that happen again. She’s worked really hard and I’m super proud of her.”

Dillinger had one strikeout, six walks and scattered nine hits over seven innings in defeat.

“They put bat on ball and go deep into counts fouling pitches off,” Burch said of the Redskins. “We’ve come a long way defensively and not making the errors we did at the beginning of the season. They had impeccable defense tonight as well.”

Hurricane will face the winner of Tuesday’s sectional title game between Lincoln County/Cabell Midland in a best-of-three regional series next week.