GRAFTON — The Red Riders are coming home with a chance to get to the state tournament.

The Weir High softball team went on the road Tuesday to open the Class AAA Region 1 Championship Series at Grafton and battled to a 4-2 victory over the Bearcats.

The Red Riders will host Game 2 of the best-of-three series today at the Roberta “Birdie” DeFrances softball field with a chance to clinch a trip to the state tournament.

After a scoreless first two innings on Tuesday, the Red Riders struck first in the top of the third as Eliza Utt and Rayna Hoover clubbed back-to-back RBI doubles for a 2-0 lead.

That remained the score until the top of the sixth inning when Brayley Lash knocked a two-out RBI triple for a 3-0 lead, which proved to be the game-winning run as Grafton plated two runs in the bottom half of the inning.

The Red Riders (27-7) added some insurance in the top of the seventh as Utt helped her own cause with her second RBI double of the game, then the junior fired a 1-2-3 bottom of the seventh, striking out the last two batters to close things out.

Utt finished the day with 10 punchouts and just one walk, while both runs the Bearcats scored were unearned.

Bella Weber, Jaidyn Kelly and Gigi Paladina also had a hit in the win.

The first pitch for Game 2 of the series in Weirton is set for 6 p.m. If needed, Game 3 would be back in Grafton Thursday.