Andrew Grimm MAKING A PLAY - Madonna third baseman Rylee Birkhimer makes a play during Saturday's game.

WEIRTON — The Madonna softball team picked an inopportune time to have a bad day.

With a chance to clinch their Class A, Region 1 bracket and lock up a trip to the state tournament on Saturday, the Blue Dons committed five costly errors and left eight runners stranded as Ritchie County staved off elimination with a 4-0 victory.

The teams will meet again on Monday in a winner-take-all game at Starvaggi Park.

All four of the Ritchie County runs were unearned and three of the four scored on errors with two outs.

“It just wasn’t our day,” Madonna head coach Jason Backel said. “Five errors certainly did not help, you cannot give a good team unearned runs.

“Hopefully we come back on Monday as a different team. I told them after the game we just have to forget about this one and put it behind us. I think we’re the better team, we have to come out and show it.”

At the plate, the Blue Dons struck out 13 times against the Devils’ All-State pitcher Rocklyn Marcum. Marcum struck out the first six batters she faced and struck out the side three times in holding the Dons to four hits.

Madonna did, however have a couple of golden opportunities to score, none bigger than the bottom of the third when the Dons loaded the bases with one out, but a force at the plate and a punch out ended the threat with Marcum unscathed.

The Dons also left runners on first and second in the fourth, a runner on second in the sixth and two on in the seventh.

“We did not have good pitch selection and swung at a lot of pitches above our shoulders,” Backel said. “You cannot do that against an all-state pitcher. We struck out 13 times and didn’t score. She doesn’t need any help.

“We did have runners in scoring position multiple times, but just could not get that timely hit or, if we did hit it, they made a fantastic play.”

For her part, Peyton Conley battled in the circle to give Madonna a chance to hang around, striking out 12 batters. The run support she needed simply never came, though.

“I thought Peyton pitched a heck of a game to hold them to four runs considering we had five errors,” Backel said. “She threw a lot of pitches

By virtue of having earned the high seed in the bracket, Madonna will host Monday’s game for all the marbles.

“That’s why you work so hard all season to get the highest seed you can,” Backel said. “Now we have to bounce back and take advantage of it.”

WVSSAC Class A Tournament

Region 1, Bracket 2 final

No. 3 Ritchie County 4, No. 2 Madonna 0

RC 0-0-1 2-1-0 0 –4 7 0

M 0-0-0 0-0-0 0 — 0 4 5

RITCHIE COUNTY (18-10): Marum (WP, CG. Jeffrey D, S; Bush D, S, RBI; Hardbarger D; Wass D.

MADONNA (21-6): Conley (LP, CG, 4R, 0ER, 7H, 12K, 6BB) and Foresha. R. Birkhimer D; Foresha S; T. Birkhimer S; Littleton S.