Andrew Grimm DELIVERY — Weir High pitcher Eliza Utt fires a pitch during Thursday's OVAC Class 4A title game against Beaver Local at Oak Glen.

A handful indeed.

The sophomore who entered the title game with an ERA under under 2 and had struck out 14 Golden Bears a week earlier fired 16 more strikeouts Thursday evening in a complete game, one-hit shutout of the Red Riders in a 3-0 victory, leading the Beavers to their first conference title in 25 years.

“It’s great to win this and get the trophy,” Beaver Local head coach Mark Cashdollar said. “The last time was in 2001 so it’s been 25 years. We’ve played for it in other years but this is the first time we’ve won it in a long time. It’s great.

“We only lose one player from this team, we only have one senior, so we’re gonna keep on working.” 

Andrew Grimm CELEBRATION — Beaver Local players rush to celebrate with pitcher Addie Thurik after the final out of their 3-0 win in the OVAC championship game against Weir High.

Beaver Local, the top seed in the tournament, improves to 22-3 on the season and has now won nine-straight games.

After three scoreless innings at the Oak Glen Fields of Dreams Complex of Thurik and Weir senior ace Eliza Utt dueling, the Beavers broke through with a run in the bottom of the fourth on a two-out RBI single from Mya Anderson and then added two more an inning later on an RBI knock from Thurik helping her own cause and an RBI double from Brylee Curtis, her battery mate.

“It’s amazing, we’ve been finding ways to win all season,” Cashdollar said. “We came up on the fourth inning ready to do something. Throughout the year, we’ve found ways to  win games. Down at Myrtle Beach, we were down eight runs and came back and won. We’ve seen these girls find ways all season.” 

Those runs proved to be more than enough as got five of the last six outs via the punch out, including striking out the side in the seventh. The only Weir base runner after the Red Riders stranded Utt on second following a lead off single in the fourth came on an error.

“We had a week to prepare and we talked about how (Thurik) struck out 14 against Oak Glen, we reiterated over and over that if she struck out 14 again, we wouldn’t give ourselves much of a chance, and she had 16,” Weir High head coach John Leary said. “Congratulations to Beaver Local, that young lady is phenomenal pitcher and they did what they needed to do to win.

Andrew Grimm BASE RUNNING — Weir High's Bella Weber looks to advance to second base.

“I’m very disappointed that we went into the game with a game plan and didn’t stick to it, we didn’t do what we talked about. We wanted to be aggressive and not take strike one. I just told them in the huddle that, she had eight of her strikeouts in the first four innings and on six of those, we took strike one and we talked about not doing that all week. I didn’t want them to be passive and we were passive. That’s frustrating as coaches.

“We’ve seen some good pitchers this year, but she’s the best we’ve seen.”

For her part, Utt did everything she could to allow her team to hang around, striking out three and walking two in six innings, gutting it out and staying in the game after taking a comebacker off the leg. The run support she needed, however, never came.

“Eliza did a phenomenal job, we just did not give her any support,” Leary added.

UP NEXT

Weir High: Closes its regular season with a trip to Indian Creek today.

Beaver Local: Has a trip to United on Saturday.

OVAC Softball Tournament

Class 4A Championship

At Oak Glen High School Fields of Dreams Complex

No. 1 Beaver Local 3, No. 2 Weir High 0

WH 0-0-0 0-0-0 0 — 0 1 1

BL 0-0-0 1-2-0 x — 3 6 3

WEIR HIGH (18-8): Utt (LP, 6IP, 3R, 3ER, 3K, 2BB) and Barton. Utt S.

BEAVER LOCAL (22-3): Thurik (WP, CG, 0R, 1H, 16K, 0BB) and Curtis. Curtis 2S, RBI; Thunk S, RBI; Call S; Anderson S, RBI; Bourne S.