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Taking to the field

The Pizza Hut Hillbilly Hardball Classic won’t have a champion this year but plenty of baseball will still be played over the next two days.

The severe weather that hit the area on Thursday and early Friday forced too many postponements for tourney officials to play a championship round on Sunday.

Games got underway on Friday, however, at fields in Elkins, Mill Creek, Buckhannon, Philippi and Bridgeport.

A full day of action also is planned for today and Sunday.

Potomac Valley 13, St. Mary’s 3

Grantsville (Md.) 14, Potomac Valley 7

Potomac Valley Post 64 used a fine performance from pitcher Brian George to keep St. Mary’s Post 79 at bay in a 13-3 Friday in Pizza Hut Hardball Classic action at Robin Harvey Memorial Field.

“We had good pitching, good defense and 17 or 18 hits,” Elkins native and Post 64 manager Kevin Reed said. “It was just an all-around good game for us.”

Wirt Cook, the St. Mary’s coach, called George “the best pitcher we’ve seen all year, he kept us behind in the count all day.”

George allowed two walks and served up nine strikeouts. He did give up two home runs to Post 79, however, as Tyler Davis hit a solo shot in the third inning and Zac Romine belted a two-run homer in the fourth.

Post 64 had seven costly errors in a 14-7 loss to Grantsville (Md.) in Friday’s first game.

“We beat ourselves in that first game,” Reed said. “We had seven errors and it could have been nine. I think the scorer was just being nice to us. Normally seven runs keep you in a ball game.

Moundsville 6, Harrison County Patriots 1

Harrison County Patriots 5, Beech Creek (Pa.) 3

Moundsville broke open a 1-1 tie with three runs in the fifth inning to down the Harrison County Patriots, 6-1.

Robert Marra, coach of the Patriots, mentioned “the breakdown came in the fifth inning. It was tied up at one and then we committed two errors that led to three runs and we didn’t recover.”

“Overall, we had good pitching with Hunter Haddix going into the sixth inning and H.N. Snyder finishing for us,” Harrison County coach Robert Marra said. “I was not displeased with our effort.”

The Patriots came out on top in their second contest of the day. Logan Smith earned the win.

Dante Bonamino had the winning RBI on a double, and then Elijah Drummond singled to bring in Bonamino to close out the scoring for Harrison County.

Beech Creek Post 623 totaled five hits in the tilt, all singles. Cole Hanly, Chuck Probst, and Kevin Haverly each had a safety, while Clayton Butler was 2 for 2 with a run scored. Probst scored the other two runs for the Pennsylvania squad.

Bryce Hanley worked 5 1/3 innings for Beech Creek, giving up four runs on three hits with two strikeouts and six walks.

All of the runs surrendered by Beech Creek were earned, It had no errors in the game.

Post 623 won its first game of the day over Beckley Post 32 by an 11-1 count.

South Charleston 15, State College (Pa.) 0

South Charleston jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first inning and cruised to a 15-0 win over State College (Pa.).

Post 94 added eight runs in the third inning as Riley Metz hit a grand slam and John Cline added a three-run shot.

South Charleston claimed a 7-6 win over Grantsville (Md.) in its second game of the day in a contest held at Elkins High School.,

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