Andrew Grimm DELIVERY — Oak Glen starting pitcher Mattie Carney delivers a pitch against Doddridge County on Tuesday in Region 1 tournament action. Carney fired a complete game for the Golden Bears.

Oak Glen, the defending Class AA champs, opened Region 1 tournament action at home on Tuesday and jumped ahead of visiting Doddrridge County with a three-run first inning, junior ace Mattie Carney fired a complete game and the Bears infield turned a couple of flashy double plays behind her on the way to a 5-2 victory.

“We got off to a good start, I would like to have been able to get more runs, but it was enough,” Oak Glen head coach Sherrie Garner said. “Doddridge is a good team, they do effective things and can catch you off guard. This time of year you’re going to see everyone’s best and they’re a new regional opponent for us. Traditionally Doddridge County is a gritty team and come to fight, so they were a challenging opponent for us.”

All of the scoring by both teams happened in the first three innings. The Bears (17-10) had some early miscues and both of the Doddridge (19-13) runs were unearned, but Carney shook it off and put up four-straight zeroes to end the game, striking out six without walking a batter.

Behind her, the Bears turned inning-ending double plays in the fourth and sixth. In the fourth, catcher Neveah Heath fielded a bunt and fired to first and first baseman Cam Richards then fired to second to end the inning.

Andrew Grimm CELEBRATION — Oak Glen's Danica Holden reacts after sliding across home plate safely for a run against Doddridge County.

In the sixth, senior Danica Holden made a dazzling diving catch on a pop up and from the ground fired a perfect throw to first to catch the runner off the bag.

“The double plays brought energy and were much-needed at the time,” Garner said. “We had a couple mistakes but you can’t hang your head after those, you move on and make plays and we made a couple really nice plays.”

Oak Glen got the lead early when Mikalyn Balch led off with a walk and Brayley Lash doubled, then both scored on Heath’s two-run double, Heath then scoring on a sac fly by Macie Hartung for a 3-0 lead.

That proved to be enough offense.

An inning later, after the Bulldogs had gotten on the board in the top of the second, Balch tripled with two outs in the bottom half and Lash doubled to score her, making it 4-1.

Andrew Grimm AROUND FIRST — Oak Glen's Macy Hartung rounds first after hitting an RBI double.

The Bulldogs cut the margin to 4-2 with a run in the top of the third, but Hartung’s RBI double in the bottom half pushed the margin back to three and that’s where it stayed the rest of the way.

UP NEXT

Oak Glen will likely not play again until Friday. Doddridge and No. 6 Tyler Consolidated meet in an elimination game and the winner of that game meets Oak Glen. Doddridge has a player competing in track regionals today, so the elimination game with Tyler will not take place until at least Thursday, pushing the next game at Oak Glen back to Friday. If Oak Glen wins that game, they advance to the state tournament. The Tyler/Doddridge winner will be looking to force a winner-take-all game, presumably on Saturday.

WVSSAC Class AA Tournament

Region 1. Bracket 2 Tournament

Andrew Grimm MAKING CONTACT — Oak Glen's Kynslee Landess connects with her swing against Doddridge County.

No. 2 Oak Glen 5, No. 3 Doddridge County 2

DC 0-1-1 0-0-0 0 — 2 4 0

OG 3-1-1 0-0-0 0 — 5 7 4

DODDRIDGE COUNTY (19-13): Sattefield (LP, 6IP, 5R, 4ER, 7H, 1K, 3BB) and Holtz. Holtz S; Pratt S; Curran S; Gagnon S.

OAK GLEN (17-10): Carney (WP, CG, 2R, 0ER. 4H, 6K, 0BB) and Heath. Balch T; Lash 2D, RBI; Heath D, 2RBIs; Holden S; Hartung D, 2RBIs; Robinson S.

Andrew Grimm MAKING A PLAY — Oak Glen's Kylie Robinson fires the ball in after tracking it down in the outfield.