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WEIRTON – The Madonna baseball took the first step to adding another trophy to its collection.
Top-seeded Madonna pounded out 12 runs on 13 hits en route to a 12-1 victory against fourth-seeded Beallsville in an OVAC Class 1A Tournament Semifinal Monday evening at Bowman Field.
The Blue Dons scored at least one run in all four innings they batted.
"We did overswing at times, but our approach has gotten better the last couple of weeks," first-year Madonna (18-5) head coach T.J. Miller said. "We are hitting our stride at the right time when it comes to hitting. We were looking lackluster at the plate, but our approach has gotten better.
"We are seeing the ball better. We're hitting with two strikes. We're doing a better job."
The Dons used two pitchers in the game, and the two combined for a no-hitter.
Jacob Lazear started on the mound and picked up the win for the hosts. Lazear retired all nine batters he faced. He recorded six strikeouts, while throwing less than 50 pitches. Logan Fedak came on to start the fourth. Fedak struck out one, walked one and hit one in his two innings of work.
"Our pitchers did great," Miller said. "Jacob and Logan did very well. Defensively, we did a good job behind them. Our offense put them in a good spot early in the game."
The victors did not commit an error.
"It is nice to have a combined no-hitter," Miller said. "I wanted Jacob to go longer, but it is late in the season and I'm trying to preserve arms with injuries. Hats off to him. He pitched great."
With the win, Madonna will play in the tournament final Thursday out at Edison against the winner of the game between Cameron – the No. 2 seed – and No. 3 seed Paden City.
"We will be rested and ready to go," Miller said. "I am confident in our boys that they can get the job done."
The Dragons have won the past two tournament titles.
"Cameron has a couple of really good arms that are going Division I," Miller said. "They have the older Angel kid and the older Hartley kid. They have bene playing good baseball. I don't know a lot about Paden City. We are going to be ready to go. We are going to have a practice tomorrow."
The hosts tallied four doubles in the game.
"No matter where you pitch it, they are going to hit it," Beallsville (10-10) head coach Ty English said. "Madonna is a tremendous hitting team."
The Blue Devils made four errors in the loss.
"We did better than we did the last couple of times we played them," English said. "We did not score against them in those games. Being here is big for the program."
Madonna shut out Beallsville, 12-0 and 17-0, in the two previous meetings this season.
The visitors from Monroe County also used two pitchers in the semifinal. Garrett Perkins started and took the loss. Perkins struck out three without walking a batter in his three innings of work on the mound. Reed Smith came on and pitched the fourth. He did record a strikeout or walk a batter.
Smith contributed the lone RBI for the boys in blue.
Eight batters had at least one hit for the Blue Dons, while another tallied an RBI.
Individually, Noah Kimberland collected two singles, a triple and two RBI, Grant Wilharm and David Connors each contributed a single, a double and two RBI and Leyland Nagy tallied three singles and an RBI. Also, Lazear recorded a double and an RBI, Mathew Geer and Fedak each finished with a single and an RBI and Cory Gontas recorded an RBI.
The Blue Dons plated three runs in the bottom of the first before an out was recorded. Nagy singled, stole second and score on a double by Lazear to give the home team an early 1-0 advantage. Lazear scored on a double by Wilharm to make the score 2-0, and Wilharm scored on a single by Geer to extend Madonna's advantage to 3-0.
The next batter reached on an error to put two runners on base, however, Perkins retired the next to three batters to end the threat and the inning.
Kimberland led off the second with a single, and he scored on a two-out single by Wilharm to extend Madonna's advantage to 4-0. Wilharm stole second, but he ended up being stranded there.
Madonna added three more runs in the third.
Chase Littleton was hit by a pitch to start the inning, and he stole second. David Connors followed with a single, and he also stole second. Then, Littleton and Connors scored on a single by Kimberland to make the score 6-0. Nagy followed with another hit, and Kimberland scored on an errant pick off throw to make it 7-0.
The visitors got on the scoreboard in the fourth. Tryson English walked to start the inning, and he stole second. Smith followed with a bunt and was thrown out at first, however, the catcher hustled all the way around and ended up scoring on the play to make it a 7-1 ballgame.
The Blue Dons answered back in the home half of the inning as they scored five more runs to build an 11-run advantage. Nagy and Fedak each singled home a run, Connors recorded a two-run double and Gontas plated a run with a sacrifice fly.
Fedak struck out the first batter in the fifth before hitting the next one to give Beallsville another base runner, however, a 4-6-3 double play ended the game.
"Making the OVACs will help build the program," Coach English said. "The last couple of years, we have won about three games a year, so winning 10 is a big improvement. We have some younger guys and this was a great experience for them. You can only go up from playing good teams."
The Blue Dons are the Class 1A regular season champions, and they are also city champions. Madonna defeated Weir this season at home.
Madonna is scheduled to play East Liverpool at 5 p.m. Wednesday at home.
Beallsville is slated to play Belpre at 5 p.m. Thursday at home.
Madonna 12, Beallsville 1
Beallsville 000 10 – 1 0 4
Madonna 313 5X – 12 13 0
BEALLSVILLE (10-10): Perkins LP (3IP, 3K, 0BB), Smith (1IP, 0K, 0BB) and English. Smith RBI
MADONNA (18-5): Lazear WP (3IP, 6K, 0BB), Fedak (2IP, 3K, 1BB) and Gontas. Nagy 3S, RBI; Lazear D, RBI; G. Wilharm S, D, 2RBI; Geer S, RBI; Fedak S, RBI; Connors S, D, 2RBI; Gontas RBI; N. Kimberland 2S, T, 2RBI