BIG DAY — Oak Glen’s Mattie Carney delivers a pitch against Wheeling Central in Thursday’s sectional game. Carney had a home run and threw a complete game in a 3-1 Golden Bears win. - Kim North

NEW MANCHESTER — A pair of high school softball programs with steep state tournament history met in the winner’s bracket finals of the W.Va. Class AA Region I, Section I tourney Thursday.

Top-seeded Oak Glen (24-8) put itself in the driver’s seat of the three-team event with a 3-1 triumph over No. 2 Wheeling Central on the sun-splashed, but windy, Suzan L. Smith Fields of Dreams Complex in Hancock County.

The Maroon Knights (18-8) will now face Tyler Consolidated in an elimination game Friday on

Lisa’s Field at the I-470 J.B. Chambers Complex in Elm Grove at 5 p.m. They blanked the Silver Knights 10-0 Wednesday in five innings. That winner will have to beat the Golden Bears twice — at home — for the championship.

“I thought we played a really good game until the seventh inning, but we played hard and so did Wheeling Central,” veteran Oak Glen head coach Sherrie Garner said.

Wheeling Central’s Josie Frizzell and Oak Glen’s Mattie Carney were locked in a scoreless pitcher’s duel until Carney took matters into her own hands. The sophomore lefty took a 2-2 pitch from Frizzell and deposited it over the fence for a 1-0 advantage leading off the home half of the fourth.

“When you make Josie work that hard and you finally get a pi6ch to hit, you have to take advantage of it, and she did. That’s the first home run we’ve hit over the fence here this season,” Garner said. “We’ve had a few inside-the-park home runs and the opposition has hit a couple, but that was our first.”

The Golden Bears, who won a state title in 1998 and have been a perennial participant in the state tournament over the past three decades, added a pair of runs, thanks to a couple of questionable calls for a 3-0 margin in the fifth.

Macy Hartung legged out an infield single leading off and stole second. With one out, Riley Bruce attempted a sacrifice bunt but popped it up down the first base line. Wheeling Central’s Sydney Hupp was charging and appeared to have caught the ball before it touched the turf, but the home plate umpire ruled differently. Hupp wheeled and threw to first but the ball got away as Hartung raced home and Bruce advanced to second. Addie Smith followed with a run-scoring double to the gap in right-center.

“I guess my opinion of the umpires doesn’t count, but they missed two calls … two of them in a row,” Wheeling Central head coach Buck Davidson said. “Oh, that would be the inning Oak Glen scored two runs.”

Davidson also thought Hartung was out stealing second prior to the popped up bunt. However, the umpire ruled the ball was dropped.

Garner said good teams take advantage of what the opposition gives them.

“We had some good at-bats that inning and we stress that,” Garner said. “I thought we ran the bases really well, too.”

Carney was sailing along through six frames. After serving up a single to Morgan Miehle to start the game, the southpaw retired 14 before Bella Rine singled to center with two outs in the fifth. Carney got the first out of the seventh before giving up a double to Josie Frizzell. She was replaced on the basepaths by courtesy runner Katie Palmer. With two outs, Rine grounded to short, but the throw to first was wild and Palmer raced home to make it 3-1. Another Golden Bear error allowed the go-ahead run to come to the plate, but Carney induced a foul pop out to end things.

Morgan Miehle added a double to her single as the Maroon Knights only mustered up four hits.

Carney struck out 10 and didn’t allow a free pass during her 98-pitch outing.

Frizzell, meanwhile, fanned nine and walked three. She gave up four hits, as well.

“Their pitcher pitched well but we didn’t start hitting the ball until the last inning,” Davidson offered. “They wanted it more than we did. It was a very tough loss for us, but, hopefully, we will bounce back tomorrow (Friday) and see them again on Saturday.”